Helicopter names
 

I wonder why some names are rarely used EC120 Colibri for instance.
Nearly every bell product I can think of had a name except the 407 and 429.
Was the S76 officially called the Spirit.

I call mine Mandy and one of the other lads refers to his as Beryll but some how I can't see Bell or Eurocopter following our lead!

Isn't a designator enough?
Why would it need some animal's name?

Does an AS350 actually remind you of a squirrel ? Yeah, looks exactly like it...

Those new EC numbers are perfect. When someone tells you the 155 is a 6 ton machine, you can easily say:" Wait a minute, what was the second 5 for ?"

My 2 centavos.

The 429 was christened 'GlobalRanger' at launch, but the name seems to have fallen out of favor (too close a connection with the 206?). Ditto for the S-92 ('Helibus').

Looking at one of the other recent threads, some people apparently call the helicopters flying over their homes "Motherf......" :E

I/C

I believe the S92 is also known as the Sea Queen... no exactly a tough sounding name.

TiP

Possibly they realised the name "Colibri" could cause confusion.

It was already in use in other aviation circles, and had been for many years before they thought to use it for the EC120.

Brügger Colibri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Irish were apparantly given the honour of naming the AW139 and chose Wolfhound to reflect Cu Chulain's dogs of war.The submission went into historic and mythologic detail and was well recieved by the Italians. Subsequently officially turned down for being 'too warlike' by the civil side of the DOD. Currently reflected in the formation callsign 'WOLF' adopted by all 139 formations, although this may vary in the future. I imagine it may be resurected by the Italians for the 149. It is a rather cool name!

I guess the MV-22 would be called the "Hangar Queen" then?

How on earth can "wolfhound" be considered aggressive? :}

http://www.hunde-irish-wolfhound.de/...hound_3071.jpg

I think the Schweizer 300 should be called the Maybug - they share many aerodynamic properties :p

http://www.invisiblebeard.com/images/cockchafer.jpg

Cheers

Whirls

Yes, the system works well until you get into double (weight) figures, then starts to go a bit awry - hence the 225 and 725 (by rights they should be the 1125 and 6125, but that spoils the 3 digit number convention!)

Whirls, the other common name for the Maybug would put the blokes off! :ooh:

When the S76A started off it was called the S76 Spirit. The name Spirit was dropped because of some problem in Hispanic speaking countries.

ShyT, it never crossed my mind :E

Cheers

Whirls

If it has a '5' on the end, then it's a twin engine (eg EC155, AS355, EC135), if it has a '0' on the end, then it's a single (eg EC120, EC130, AS350)

@flap flap flap
You are right, of course. I meant the second digit being a five.
The 135 would have been a better example.
Sorry.

would be interestting to know rhat the Bolkow concepts between the 105 and the 117 where. I think the 108 was the precurser to the EC135 , wonder what the 106 and 107 were ?.

1977 | 0737 | Flight Archive

I am guessing the bo107 became the BK117.

and the BO 106
MBB Bo.106 helicopter - development history, photos, technical data

Wonder why it never went past prototype stage

Flap,

I would have thought one's and two's would have been appropriate rather than naughts and fives.....but then the French do have their own unique way of doing things.

Goodgrief - It's still pretty easy to follow - just remember to 'carry the one' (hence EC2xx & EC7xx for a 10-19 ton platform. If that European heavylift project ever gets off the ground, we could perhaps even see an EC9xx designation used, though a 3-engine solution would screw-up the ECxx0/ECxx5 logic...).

widgeon - The BO106 was a widebody BO105 that flew in '73, and was used as a trials ship for the next decade; the BO107 was a 10-seat study that preceded the BK117.

I/C

While we are on about names, is it true that the EH101 started life as European Helicopter Industries 01 and a typo by a clerk resulted in it's current designation?.
Incidentally, the ATC in the US still has the AS350 designated as a Squirrel. Personally, I lile the name squirrel. It's a warm, fuzzy creature and needs a lot of nuts to keep it going.:E Besides, close to the ground, on a windy day, it behaves exactly like one.
Alt3.

The British call it squirrel, the yanks call it Astar.