The Eurocopter 135 or Ec135 helicopter is one of the most widely used and popular helicopters in Europe along with the well-known Robinson helicopters. Unlike Robinson, which is often used as a training, personal transport or less often for commercial flights, Eurocopter 135, due to its technical features and qualities, has become more widely used in European countries. Let’s find out how many years ago the history of this amazing machine began. We will talk about this in our short article.
First, a little history. The development of the helicopter has been carried out since the distant 1980. It took the developers 8 years for the first prototype to fly and 6 years for the pre-production model to take off in 1994. After all the necessary tests, in 1996 the helicopter entered serial production and to date more than 700 machines have been produced. The basic model for the 135th was the MBB Bo 108 helicopter, in the silhouette of which the features of the 135th aircraft are clearly traced and came to replace the outdated BO 105.
Let’s turn our attention to the main technical characteristics of the helicopter. First of all, the engine. What distinguishes our model from, for example, a helicopter of a similar class, Bell 505 JRX, is that the Eurocopter 135 helicopter is equipped with two engines, which gives it many advantages in speed, range, power, rate of climb, etc. The helicopter is produced with engines of two versions: 2 × Turbomeca Arrius 2B2 turboshafts with 606 horsepower and 2 × Pratt & Whitney Canada PW206B2 turboshafts with 621 horsepower, which is an average of 1200 forces against 504 for the Bell 505. Rate of climb thanks to the power plant 7.6 meters per second.
The helicopter develops a cruising speed of 240 km / h, in the basic version it can cover up to 650 km and can stay in the air for up to 3.5 hours.
The cabin modification is designed for 1-2 pilots and 5-6 passenger seats. The helicopter can be easily converted into an ambulance (medical) one, it is equipped with a rear hatch, which makes it easy and easy to convert it to a stretcher. Four rotor blades and a vibration reduction system from the rotor ARIS (Anti Resonance Isolation System) allowed the helicopter to find the widest application for medical flights. The helicopter is equipped with a fenestron, which allows it not to exceed the noise standards and thus makes it possible to be used in cities at different times of the day.
The helicopter is widely used in ski resorts, in all kinds of rescue units, in the police, it is used for work on offshore gas and oil platforms, for ship transport aircraft. Having a powerful engine and the ability to quickly gain altitude, the helicopter is widely used and is in demand in difficult climatic, unfavorable conditions, in conditions of tough exploitation and hard-to-reach places for flights. The helicopter is equipped with a Hellas laser obstacle warning system, which will allow maneuvering in confined spaces and in poor visibility conditions.
The hydraulic and electrical systems are double redundant, which makes the helicopter virtually trouble-free. The helicopter can perform IFR flights thanks to flight and navigation equipment and the ability to use weather radar, which is extremely important in extreme conditions when the impact of weather conditions must be minimized. All these qualities make the helicopter as safe as possible.
In 2014, Eurocopter was renamed Airbus Group, in other words, now Eurocopter helicopters are called Airbus. This change also affected our helicopter, during the rebranding it was named H135. Since then, the helicopter has been used in business aviation, in the Airbus corporate helicopter division, as a corporate helicopter for business aviation in the world. Due to its characteristics, it has become in demand for commercial flights, for personal use, as a business-class helicopter. Airbus H135 is used for charter VIP flights, equipped with designer interior and leather ventilated seats, tinted glass for passenger doors, air conditioning.
>Every day the helicopter faces more and more new tasks and obstacles, it has to overcome distances, take off and land, be useful and fly to the rescue every minute.