Delayed two years by program management complexities and the pandemic, Airbus Helicopters’ Rapid and Cost-Efficient Rotorcraft (Racer) is now expected to achieve first flight later this year, according to program chief engineer Brice Makinadjian. The first assembly phase of the compound high-speed rotorcraft took place at Airbus Helicopters' site in Donauwörth, Germany, and the demonstrator was transferred to the company's Marignane, France site seven months ago for final assembly.
“We have now received almost 100 percent of all parts from our partners in the Clean Sky 2 contract,” Makinadjian said, referring to the European Union’s public-private aerospace research initiative that awarded €200 million ($227 million) for the project. Following fatigue testing, the aircraft's three-meter-long shafts are scheduled to return to Marignane this month. Airbus expects to receive the main gearbox in June and lateral gearboxes later this year from Avio Aero.
Powered by a pair of 2,500-shp Safran Aneto-1X engines, Racer is designed to cruise at 220 knots, nearly twice as fast as a conventional helicopter, and fly 400 nm. Up to a 15 percent reduction in fuel burn can be achieved when one of the two engines is placed in standby mode during cruise flight.
The flight-test campaign will validate Racer against Clean Sky 2 goals of 20 percent lower CO2 and NOx emissions, as well as 20 percent less noise than current helicopters.
Metro Aviation, continuing to broaden its use of new and advanced technologies, is winding down the test phase of a base weather camera trial at the University of Michigan Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor. The helicopter ambulance services provider, which is running the Michigan weather camera program in cooperation with the FAA, began the trial in August.
When placed into regular operation, Brian Bihler, director of operations for Metro, said the cameras, which cost just under $10,000, will more than pay for themselves.
The company's base at the Ann Arbor hospital is 4.2 nm from the nearest airport’s automated surface observing system (ASOS) and the hospital does not have its own weather reporting station. The nearest airport is located in a valley, and its ASOS reports often vary greatly from the actual weather at the helicopter air ambulance, causing missions to be unnecessarily scrapped. “Sometimes they’re fogged in and we’re high VFR,” said Brian Bihler, Metro's director of operations.
Bihler estimates the Ann Arbor base could pick up an additional 16 missions per year or more by relying on weather observations from the camera. Metro bought the equipment through the FAA, which has had a long-established weather camera program in Alaska and has recently expanded it to Colorado.
While still circumspect about certification timing, Bell is conducting a series of tests on its Model 525 in preparation to have icing approval in hand when the super-medium-twin helicopter enters service. Bell has fitted a fully kitted 525, S/N 14, with shapes that simulate various forms of icing for testing of loads and handling qualities.
The Fort Worth, Texas-based rotorcraft manufacturer anticipates those tests to be completed and the aircraft ready to fly to Marquette, Michigan, in the next few days for testing in actual icing conditions. Tests are anticipated to continue into April.
Bell executives said plans call to obtain an amended type certification (TC) for icing as it secures full approval for the 525. “We’re doing that a little differently,” said Bell 525 program director Derek Mookhoek. “Rather than having the basic TC, having [the helicopter] enter into service, and then do a follow-on amended TC, we want to work that in parallel.”
Bell president and CEO Mitch Snyder was encouraged by the headway the program has made overall toward certification, saying it has advanced not only in the flight tests “but also in the documentation.” He further expressed confidence that “we’ll make tremendous progress this year. This is going to be a good year.”
Helicopter Association International (HAI) is progressing on a number of initiatives—from safety management systems (SMS) to aviation safety action plans (ASAP)—as it works with industry partners to raise the bar for operators of all sizes. The association recently signed up the first participant of its SMS program, unveiled last year, and already has operators engaged in the ASAP program that HAI offers in collaboration with the Air Charter Safety Foundation.
These efforts will be front and center this week at Heli-Expo through its safety zone, which will house a number of safety organizations and firms that are working alongside HAI to address the varied needs of a diverse industry, HAI president and CEO Jim Viola said. He noted that at the last in-person Heli-Expo in Anaheim, California, “as soon as you walked in the door you couldn’t miss the safety zone,” and he expects a large presence again this year exhibiting with dozens of safety professionals and partners.
“As an association, the responsibility is to have a safe industry and an industry that people trust,” Viola told AIN. The challenge for the association is to find initiatives that can fit with all operators and it becomes particularly important as a new class of operator, and vehicle, emerges, he said.
Trying to reach operators of all sizes, HAI developed the SMS program. In addition to picking up its first participant, Viola is encouraged that the ASAP initiative is “starting to pick up a little steam.
Brazil-based AGS Global Logistics, exhibiting for the first time at Heli-Expo, is eying expansive plans to grow its bases globally. In the logistics field for 22 years, the helicopter shipping company experienced a 45 percent increase in sales volume during the pandemic and is adding personnel and locations in Brazil and internationally to keep up with demand.
“Most of our demand comes from Brazil, where our largest clients are,” said CEO Alexandre Gulla, explaining that AGS’s overseas bases build on and support its Brazilian operations.
In Brazil, AGS has several locations in São Paulo and one in Rio de Janeiro. The logistics specialist plans to open another in the port city of Itajaí, in the southern state of Santa Catarina, which offers significant fiscal incentives. “Some of our clients would benefit from operating there, and we’ll take them with us,” Gulla noted.
However, AGS also is looking at growth in the U.S., where its locations in Miami, Houston, and Atlanta will shortly be joined by one in Connecticut.
Elsewhere, its long-established Milan, Italy base is to be joined in the first quarter of 2022 by a base in the south of France and, after that, one in Qatar. Plans call for a large expansion in Asia, Europe, and the U.S., and continued growth in Brazil.
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