Eurocopter EC135
utility helicopter by Eurocopter, later Airbus Helicopters
The Airbus Helicopters H135 (formerly Eurocopter EC135) is a twin-engine civil light utility helicopter produced by Airbus Helicopters. It is capable of flight under instrument flight rules and is outfitted with a digital automatic flight control system. First flying in February 1994 and developed from the prototype Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm MBB Bo 108, it entered service in 1996. 1,400 units have been delivered up to September 2020, to 300 operators in 60 countries, accumulating over 5 million flight hours. It is mainly used for air medical transport (medevac), corporate transport, law enforcement, offshore wind support, and military flight training. Half of the units in service are in Europe and a quarter in North America. The H135M is the military variant.
Development
Origins
The H135 started development prior to the formation of Eurocopter, under Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) under the designation Bo 108 in the 1970s. MBB developed it in partnership with Aérospatiale, the Bo 108 was initially intended to be a technology demonstrator, combining attributes of the successful MBB Bo 105 with new advances and an aerodynamically streamlined design. Technologies included on the Bo 108 included the first full-authority digital engine controls (FADEC) on a helicopter, a hingeless main rotor, and the adoption of a new transmission.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Eurocopter EC135” is utility helicopter by Eurocopter, later Airbus Helicopters. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Eurocopter, EC135 and utility, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Eurocopter EC135” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.