Eurocopter EC120 Colibri
Germany Germany France France
The Eurocopter EC 120 Colibri is a five-seat, single-engine, light helicopter of the German - French aircraft manufacturer Eurocopter turbine powered.
Development
After extensive research of the future helicopter market, the decision in 1992 to develop the Eurocopter EC 120 likes in order to serve the market of the smallest helicopters can, in particular in Asia.
It came to a cooperation agreement between the company Eurocopter, which took over the technical management of the project, final assembly and all testing and approval process, the Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Company, which was to deliver the ready-finished hull with fuel system (Project Percentage: 24 %) and Singapore Technologies Aerospace, who were responsible for the doors, the tail rotor boom and windshields (Project percentage: 15%). Development work in 1993 by an approximately 60 -strong development team, which included besides some 30 French and approximately 10 engineers from Singapore and 20 from China begun. There two prototypes were manufactured in 1995 and 1996 completed its first flight.
The type was first presented to the public at Heli-Expo in Anaheim in February 1997. At this show have already been placed on the 20 sales. Launch customer was the Danish airline Unifly. French Approval was granted on 17 June 1997, the FAA. The first production aircraft was delivered on 2 February 1998 on 22 January 1998. At the same time worked on an improvement of the type EC 120B. In November 1998, the first prototype of this variant in Sweden took flight tests. Problems with supplies from China led during series production again and again to production bottlenecks. Nevertheless, it was 2002, the bicentennial EC 120 delivered.
On 1 March 2006 EADS North America announced that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection will provide the time being ten units of EC120 in service; the scope of the contract covers the supply of a total of 55 units.
Since 2011, the EC 120B is introduced by the traffic police in Kurdistan, Iraq in a 2 -stage training process the necessary pilots are first trained to gyroplane pilots and subsequently to helicopter pilots.
In addition to civilian use, the EC 120B can also be used for military purposes, for example for training or lightweight support missions. The EC 120 is equipped with a weight of less than two tonnes, the smallest and lightest helicopter from Eurocopter.
Technical data (EC- 120B )
Similar types of helicopters
- Bell 206
- Enstrom 480
- MD 500
- PZL SW-4
- Robinson R66
- Swiss S -333
- Swiss S -434