WOW how many fires does Hiroshima have to warrant an H160 :eek:

I'd love to see that high visibility blade scheme of red & white in video form from above. It would appear like flashing red & white lights for sure!

If you read the article you will see it’s replacing a 365N3 after 20 years and it has multiple missions:

Seeing as a few of these have been in service now, although very few in offshore besides PHI and Omni (as far as I know), does anyone have any real world feedback on performance and payload? Having seen the W&B figures for a few different H160, it looks like they have an average empty weight of about 4000kg, compared to 6050kg MTOW. Once you load that up with 2 crew, 12 pax, plus baggage, it doesn’t leave you a lot of remaining for fuel, considering the useful quantity stated by Airbus is 1120kg…

NM,

My sources tell me that the H160 is competitive commercially and technically with an AW139 out to about 130nm, depending on the availability of the diversions, weather etc. Fuel flow is about 15-18% lower and the DOCs are about 20% less than the AW139. The global offshore fleet is about to grow a lot when Bristow take their 5x for Nigeria. Bristow will likely report on how that's going in their quarterly/ annual reports so we will likely get their view on it over the next 18 months as the 5x come online fully. Remember that Airbus position the H160 for replacing the 6.4/ 6.8T AW139, the H155, N3, S76C series and B412 market, not just a rival to the AW139 which is a bigger platform.

If you look at the Technical Description, the EEW of an offshore H160 is 3950kgs. There is allegedly no plan to give the civilian version a higher MTOW than the 6050kgs you mention but the military variant is supposed to be 6250kgs. The engines need to be upgraded for the military version to have the desired performance which is likely the key reason the French Army have not started deliveries yet (allegedly).

Thanks for the reply nowherespecial, that’s good info to have for consideration, especially the range to which it could be effectively used on existing AW139 operations. I can certainly see the aircraft finding its place as a direct replacement for operators and roles that have been using the Dauphin variants.

Apart from the engines, the French military (excluding existing SAR machines) are getting a Thales avionics fit. Is that on schedule?

212man, considering your experience with both the H155 and Nigeria, what are your thoughts on Bristow bringing in the H160, seem like a good fit?

The first delivery is scheduled (from the start) for the end of 2028.
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My information is yes but the new info I learnt only a few weeks ago is that the 'Thales fit' avionics are substantially identical to Helionix, just with some key components replaced (not fond of the sourcing). It is not an entirely new avionics suite (which is what i incorrectly thought it was).

I think one of the key differences will be the operation itself. The 155s were bought by SPDC which was the Shell onshore and shallow water part of the Shell Companies in Nigeria (and which was sold earlier this year). This meant that the majority of the locations to which it flew were onshore, in the Niger Delta and, typically, in confined areas. This meant that with the poor OEI performance at low speeds, the payloads were impacted. That is quite apart from other technical issues that manifested themselves.

By contrast, although I don't know which customers the 160 will fly for, they will operate in a traditional offshore environment so should be very well placed to succeed. I imagine that 6 will give sufficient coverage for delays in supply chain too. That said, if they are operating in the old ExxonMobil Eket field (sold to Seplat) they will be using low deck heights on the multiple NUIs, but I don't think it will be a big deal with the low fuel states (short ranges).

Are these avionics better than Helionix which is universally popular, especially for IFR. H175 benefits massively from it's usablity.
Are they somebody else's system rehashed via a new LRU instead? Flew previously with Top Deck in a 76D and it was ok but not as modern as claimed.

Apparently the FLYTX suite by Thales. Large landscape touchscreens, more suitable for mission equipment like digital maps, optical sights etc.

Linfox has ordered the first Australian H160:

https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/p...ured-by-linfox

I believe a Northern European operator will also be buying an offshore version very soon

A 'Leonardo only' company buys an H160 with no contract to put it on. Brave. Nothing about when it will deliver I note.

Riyadh Air / THC
 

At Dubai Air Show month back, I came across Riyadh Air / The Helicopter Company nice ACH160 so here are my photos below along with Lucio Gravity 4 x 4!.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....275bc5a43c.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....9355e093fd.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....a2e2374944.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....bd1f393f9f.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....fad5f0d169.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....bcab522151.jpg

cheers

French Gendamarie receives their first one
 

According to Airbus social meida, the Gendamarie have received their first one.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5b9658da46.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....a7d7215375.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c68d8d7aeb.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5e0b789eb9.jpg

cheers

It could do with a few more bits hanging off it! :ok:

It isn't yet clear whether that order relates to VH-AH6 which was recently used to conduct the Australian tour of the H160. VH-AH6 remains registered to Airbus Helicopters Australia Pacific Limited. Flight Radar 24 shows it was recently flying over Auckland, New Zealand (seemingly out of an Auckland Helicopters base).

4 abreast isn’t exactly Airbus Corporate?