AW139 killer?
 

If you want to be better than a 139, get a reduce maintenance program (which I believe won't exist...) maintenance on the AW is horrible, so that should be a good start even for me, they are 2 different aircraft.

What Arcal76 means to say is, he liked flying the S76 and didn't want to change and that due to critical Engineer shortages within his company, maintenance is struggling to keep up on their 139's.

Other organisations seem to have ironed out any maintenance issues. CHC for instance were doing 300 hour inspections in 4 days on the 139. Arcal76's organisation (when I was there) were doing them in 7-10 days. And it wasn't from a lack of spares. Lack of motivation perhaps, but not lack of spares.

Anyway..... Back to the H160.

Is there anything inside the nose? Because that is a LOT of fasteners to pull off to get inside there. Perhaps production aircraft will have it hinged???

The final approval is targeting no removal under 100 hour.

French Defense Airbus Helicopters H160M laid out
 

Here is the Airbus Helicopters product card for the H160M.

Cheers

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1724/...34adb428_h.jpg

Through some contacts I have, I was fortunate enough to fly the H160 #03 on a positioning flight from Marignane to Monaco about 6 weeks ago.

As it was a positioning flight and not a full demonstration not everything was able to be covered and it was also part of the test program.

Of note -

Quiet inside and out - conversation was easy in the cabin without headsets and there was very little sound proofing fitted.

Visibility from the cockpit is excellent. Inside to outside balanced 50/50.

Helionix - pretty much proven and across 4 models now and is very intuitive.

Vibration - very low - smooth. We pulled some pretty high loadings and vibration was very low.

Speed - we were full fuel and 5 ~ TAS 150 - set a speed on the AP above 150 and the 4 axis AP dials MCP and it sits there.

Engines - FADEC response is extremely good and fairly radical power changes were demonstrated and the Nr is solid.

Stability - at 150 with all AP's off and no SAS at all it was hardly noticeable. It seems to be naturally fairly stable.

Bi-plane stabiliser - they have finalised the angle that it should be at and the attachment has been cleaned up as opposed to earlier prototypes
Interestingly with this stabiliser arrangement, attitude change is reduced dramatically - the aircraft flies flat all the time. Impressive.

Undercarriage - it is possible to rotate the aircraft on the spot on the ground around roughly the mast axis. Push a pedal and around it goes

Fenestron - the cant makes a difference of ~200 kg in the hover

I was given a tour of the tied down test unit that sits in a large vertical wind tunnel and can be powered up with engines and various dynamic testing can be undertaken.

There is also a large static dummy with all the systems in place attached to a cockpit which looks like a sim with all the systems arranged behind, again for testing.

The production line sits between the Super Puma and 175 line and it is very advanced comparatively.
A lot of input was taken from automotive manufacture. Production time will be very short and may be one of the best features of the aircraft.

All sub-assemblies arrive completely fitted and tested.

Most of the electrics are in the nose and along with the instrumentation, forward air conditioning and most of the avionics goes in the side through the main door by robotic arm in one unit!

Most "options" are standard whether you want it or not or at least the "fixed parts" will be fitted to all as "standard". Air con is standard.

It probably deserves being labelled "next generation" and a credit to the team behind it.

Sounds like an excellent machine technically, pity the headline stats of pax/payload/range will prevent is competing against the AW139 and hence unlikely be seen in significant numbers offshore.

Point taken and I dont think that is the market they are aiming at - that bus left long ago and I wouldn't count on making much money in the O&G business in the future.

In fact the features in the aircraft would hardly be attractive to O&G operators. O&G has become a commodity and it is hard to differentiate on anything apart from "lower prices".

EMS and Corporate/VIP needs a refresh and in both those cases noise is a big issue and the current offerings do not address that. The interest from Corporate/VIP is up there.

Would one say, the H160, aiming to replace the EC155, will be struggling with power at hot&high the same way 155 did? It's a sea level helicopter design to my understanding?

Looks awesome. Sounds like it will be a true 'next generation machine' but there is a serious downside. Go take a look at the price tag. Ive seen $18million plus mentioned !!!! gulp.

Hello everyone,

For which variant did you see this price ? No doubt that Airbus will tend to reduce the bill to compete with the 139's aggressive price.

With exception to the AS350B3/H125 Airbus Helicopters are so typically French. Overstated performance, lousy support, expensive and the factory are in complete and utter denial over their shortcomings. However, somehow, and I've no idea how, their sales team seem to be able to convince governments and others alike that their product is the right choice. Either that or Bell and sikorsky need to get with the design program.

Well, I am not sure this statement is correct. I have seen some other pricing (lower) on different websites/forums.
As I am not a fake news spreader, I am not going to provide any figures.

Some performance data have been updated on Airbus website:

D-value: 15,67m
MTOW: 5670 kg
EGW: 6050 kg

HOGE: 9200 ft (ISA, MTOW)
HOGE: 6500 ft (ISA, EGW)
HIGE: 11700 ft (ISA, MTOW)
Service ceiling: 20000 ft

VNE: 170 kts
Max cruise speed: 150 kts
Recommanded cruise speed: 138 kts
TOP: 955kW / 1280 shp

Std fuel tank: 1120 kg
Useful load: ~2000 kg
Cargo sling: 1600 kg

Max range: 420 NM (std fuel tanks)
Max endurance: 4h20 (std fuel tanks)
Flight envelope: -40°C to ISA+37 (limited to 50°C)

AINonline has just published a price for the corporate version at €12 million ($13.5 million).