Helicopters

Just before the start of HAI’s Heli-Expo, which opens its doors next week in Anaheim, California, the FAA has finalized a rule that aims to improve helicopter safety. The new rule requires helicopter operators to include additional safety equipment, improve communications and procedures and impose additional training requirements for their pilots. In developing the rule, […]

Robinson Helicopter Co. is introducing glass cockpit choices for the R22, R44 and R66 models based around an Aspen Avionics EFIS package paired with optional Garmin GTN 600/700 touch-screen navigators. The basic cockpit includes an Aspen primary flight display and multifunction display that interface with several optional components, including Garmin GTR 225B comm radio, GMA […]

As of this month, the Eurocopter brand name is no more as the new Airbus Helicopters emerges as the world’s dominant player in civil rotorcraft manufacturing. The company was formally renamed on January 2, and the transition is now complete as the new-look Airbus Helicopters has rolled out a revamped website and officially changed the […]

Robinson Helicopter Co. out of Torrance, California, has released a service bulletin requiring all R22 owners to replace the fuel bladders for their helicopters. The bulletin, SB 109, affects all R22s up to and including S/N 4620. Any helicopters beyond that serial number were produced with the new fuel bladders, Robinson says. The aluminum tanks […]

The British company that operates helicopters for the Scottish police has grounded its worldwide fleet of 38 Eurocopter EC135s following a technical fault in a helicopter identical to the one that crashed through the roof of a Glasgow pub late last month. A Bond Aviation EC135 leased to the police crashed at around 10:20 p.m. […]

Marenco Swisshelicopter has completed the prototype for its eight-seat SKYe SH09 helicopter, which the company first announced at Heli-Expo in 2012. The new prototype was unveiled last week at a special event at the Mollis Airport in Mollis, Switzerland, about 33 nm southeast of Zurich. The SKYe promises exceptional visibility with a cockpit fully enclosed […]

E-volo, the developer of a series of new concept helicopter derivatives the company calls volocopters, has achieved an important milestone, successfully launching its first commercially viable two-seat version, the VC200. The maiden flight occurred on November 17 inside the Dm-arena in Karlsruhe, Germany. The VC200 was remotely controlled and its 18 electrically powered rotors had […]

The designer of the unusual CarterCopter made history last week during a test flight of a prototype slowed-rotor compound helicopter by breaking a barrier considered crucial to high-speed rotorcraft flight. Carter Aviation Technologies of Wichita Falls, Texas, said test pilots flew the CarterCopter above the so-called Mu-1 barrier (in which the speed of the rotor […]

With the confirmed death toll now standing at eight from Colorado flooding, a large group of Boulder-area parents are breathing easier today. A group of 85 fifth-grade students and their 14 adult chaperons were airlifted from a nature center where they had been stranded on a weekend field trip. Seven helicopters from the Colorado National […]

Airbus won enviro-bragging rights at last week’s GreenTec award ceremony, claiming Europe’s “most important environment and business award” for its work on fuel cells in commercial aircraft. But all eyes were also focused on the latest model from Volocopter, which was suspended from the ceiling during the presentation. Volocopter’s recently completed two-seat prototype, the VC200, […]