Robinson R66

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Robinson R66
Robinson R66
Type: helicopter
Design country:

United StatesUnited States United States

Manufacturer:

Robinson helicopter

First flight:

November 7, 2007

Commissioning:

October 25, 2010

Production time:

from 2010

Number of pieces:

1000

The Robinson R66 is a five-seat, single-engine helicopter made by the US company Robinson Helicopter with turbine drive .

history

The cockpit of an R66

Based on the Robinson R44 , the R66 is a further developed variant with turbine drive that can carry five people, three of them in the back seats. The development was announced in March 2007 and was first demonstrated in flight on February 24, 2009 at the company's headquarters. It was approved by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on October 25, 2010. The first helicopter was delivered to HeliStream , at John Wayne Airport in Costa Mesa , California , in November 2010 . Just one year later, on December 23, 2011, the hundredth aircraft was delivered to the National Airways Corporation at Lanseria International Airport near Johannesburg . In the standard version, around 810,000 US dollars were to be paid in 2011 , with delivery times of up to 16 months. According to its own information, the company already had around 380 firm pre-orders for this helicopter, of which more than 70% are exported.

Approval by the European aviation safety authority EASA was applied for in 2010 and granted at the end of April 2014. Turbine-powered helicopters of this class (according to CS-27 ) must have two redundant hydraulic systems for flight control. However, the R66 only has a hydraulic system without redundancy. The US American Aviation Authority (FAA) has decided to implement two independent control systems for this type of helicopter.

construction

The R66 has a two-bladed main rotor and a two-bladed tail rotor , a skid landing gear is used as a landing device. In contrast to the other helicopters manufactured by Robinson Helicopter, the R66 is not powered by a piston engine , but by a turbine that is lighter than the Lycoming engines used in the Robinson R44 . Despite the modern design and the new technology, the R66 does not use FADEC for engine control and analog devices are used instead of a multifunction display for the flight instruments . The seats are standard with leather, as landing lights are Xenon gas discharge lamps used. The tank capacity has been increased to 280 liters to compensate for the higher consumption of 87 liters per hour compared to the R44.

Incidents

  • In June 2016, an R66 crashed in Arizona - 2 dead.
  • On September 8, 2016, the Austrian aerobatic pilot Hannes Arch crashed during a supply flight to an alpine hut in Carinthia shortly after the return flight took off and died in the process. A spontaneously flying passenger was seriously injured. Arch registered its R66 in June 2015.

Technical specifications

Parameter Data
crew 1
Passengers 4th
Rotor diameter 10.06 m
length 11.65 m
height 3.48 m
Takeoff mass 1,225 kg
Empty mass 581 kg
Top speed 250 km / h
Cruising speed 225 km / h
Cruising altitude approx. 3400 m
Service ceiling approx. 4200 m
Range 600 km
Engine 1 × Rolls-Royce RR300 with 220 kW output
Base price 2011 USD 810,000

Comparable helicopter types

Web links

Commons : Robinson R66  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rolls-Royce congratulates Robinson Helicopter on certification of turbine powered R66. Archived from the original on September 8, 2011 ; accessed on January 15, 2016 .
  2. easa.europa.eu: EASA.IM.R.507 certificate from EASA ( Memento from May 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  3. flightglobal.com: Hydraulics concerns hold up R66 certification , February 17, 2012
  4. FliegerRevue April 2010, pp. 20–23, Heli-Expo 2010 - Innovations against the crisis
  5. a b Hannes Arch: Search for crash cause orf.at, September 9, 2016, accessed September 9, 2016.