Originally Posted by
Old Dogs
There is provision to fly certain types single-pilot IFR because they were certified that way. The Bell 222 comes to mind.
The S-76 was certified two-pilot IFR.
However, even if a helicopter was certified single-pilot IFR you cannot provide a commercial IFR service without two pilots.
The unique thing about the Bell 222 was that it was single pilot IFR without an autopilot. A local company ( Digital Equipment Corporation ) had the high time 222 back in the 1980s. The machine was stable enough that it was certified SPIFR without an autopilot, although one of their pilots complained to me that the workload could be high, hand flying it IFR. ( I'm sure folding charts was fun ). To be clear regarding rotormatic's posting of the pertinent reg, this was a Part 91 operator operating SPIFR without an autopilot.
Again regarding the regs, as pointed out by rotormatic in the US a Part 135 operator can be SPIFR with an autopilot.