Airbus Helicopters H125

Airbus Helicopters H125 Écureuil
AS 350 "Écureuil"
Type:	Multipurpose helicopter
Design country:	France
Manufacturer:	Airbus Helicopters
First flight:	June 26, 1974
Commissioning:	1975
Production time:	In series production since 1975

The type AS 350 B3

AS 350 B3 Écureuil with Bambi Bucket

AS 350 with external load

AS 355N (Moscow, 2008)

Ecureuil H125 from Swiss Helicopter

The H125 Écureuil ( French for squirrel ; formerly AS350 ), manufactured by Airbus Helicopters (formerly Aérospatiale or Eurocopter ) is a light multi-purpose helicopter with one engine. It was the first Aérospatiale helicopter to be produced on an assembly line. In addition, the so-called “Starflex” rotor head was introduced with this type, a system in which the number of moving parts was a quarter of the usual design, which extended maintenance intervals and significantly reduced production costs.

There is also the twin-engine AS 355 variant . However, this is no longer offered.

history

The first prototype took off on 27 June 1974 even with a Lycoming - turbine . The AS 350C version with the Turboméca Arriel turbine, which was later also installed in series , had its maiden flight on February 14, 1975. Other civil and military versions followed.

On September 27, 1979, the AS 355E Écureuil 2 (or Twinstar for the international market) started for the first time . This model was equipped with two turbines, which in addition to the higher performance should also bring more safety. The 350 and 355 models have now been further developed in parallel: the 350L was followed by the 355M , for example . After the name was changed to Eurocopter , the type designation was initially adopted. The more powerful EC130 was later derived from the AS350 . The twin-engine variant was discontinued in favor of the larger EC145 .

After the new name was changed to Airbus Helicopters , the new type designation H125 was introduced.

The Écureuil family of helicopters is still in production and has customers around the world.

Records

• On March 25, 2002, Frédéric North reached an altitude of 12,954 m with an AS 350 and broke the almost 30-year-old altitude record for helicopters set up by an SA-315 Lama . This record has not been recognized by the FAI so far (2012) , so the old record from 1972 remains.
• On May 14, 2005 Didier Delsalle landed with an AS 350 B3 + as the first person on the summit of Mount Everest (8848 m).
• On April 29, 2010 Daniel Aufdenblatten ( pilot / Air Zermatt ) and Richard Lehner ( mountain rescuer / Alpin Center Zermatt ) managed to rescue three alpinists from 7000 m in the Nepalese Annapurna region with an AS350 B3. This was the highest mountain rescue with a helicopter.

Technical specifications

Cockpit of an AS 355N (Moscow, 2008)

Rotor head AS 350 B3

Tail rotor AS 350 B3

AS 350 B3

Parameter	Data
crew	1
Passengers	5–6 (depending on equipment)
Rotor diameter	10.69 m
Hull length	10.93 m
Length over all	12.94 m
height	3.34 m
min. Empty mass	1018 kg
Max. Take-off mass	2250 kg
Top speed	287 km / h
Cruising speed	235 km / h (normal), 272 km / h (fast)
Hover altitude with ground effect	> 7000 m
Service ceiling	7010 m
Range	467 km (normal travel speed, without reserve)
Engine	a Turboméca Arriel -2B1- turbine
Starting power	632 kW
Continuous output	543 kW

Military variants

AS 550 at the Paris Air Show

The H125M Fennec ( French for desert fox ; formerly AS 550 ) is the military version of the H125. The twin-engine military version is called the AS 555 Fennec , but is no longer available.

Armament

Payload

• up to 400 kg on two external load frames

Air-to-surface guided missile

• 2 × ESCO HeliTOW (for each 2 × Raytheon BGM-71A TOW ) - optically wire-controlled anti-tank guided missiles
• 2 × M299 launcher racks each with 2 × Boeing Corp / Martin Marietta AGM-114 "Hellfire" - laser-controlled anti-tank guided weapons

Unguided air-to-surface missiles

• 2 × TBA 68-12 rocket launch containers for 12 × unguided SNEB air-to-ground rockets each ; Caliber 68 mm
• 2 × FZ233 Forges de Zeebrugge rocket launch container for 7 × unguided FFAR air-to-ground missiles each ; Caliber 70 mm / 2.75 inch

External container

• 2 × machine canon container Nexter (GIAT) POD NC 621, each with a 20 mm automatic cannon M621 and the 180 rounds of ammunition
• 2 × FN-Herstal -ETNA-TMP-5-MG containers (each with 2 × 7.62 mm FN MAG 58P machine guns and 500 rounds of ammunition each)

Web links

Commons : Airbus Helicopters H125 Écureuil  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : Airbus Helicopters H125M Fennec  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the manufacturer
• Type certification of the AS 350 - EASA-TCDS-R.008 (PDF; 1.7 MB)
• Type certification of AS 355 - EASA-TCDS-R.146 (PDF; 560 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fortis accompanied helicopter altitude world record . In: skyheli.ch . tape 1 , 2011, ISSN  1664-7017 , p. 57 ( Online [PDF; 8.2 MB ]). Available online (PDF, 7.8M B; 8.2 MB) ( Memento of the original from October 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ FAI Record ID # 754 ( Memento of the original from December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at fai.org, accessed September 28, 2012 
3. ^ Everest 2005: The Helicopter land on Everest with video: But it is good? (English)
4. ↑ FAI Record ID # 11596 ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on: Records.fai.org . (English) 
5. ↑ Heli pilot and mountain rescuer receive Heroism Award . Retrieved May 2, 2020 .  . In: zermatt.ch .