Helicopter Spotlight: Airbus H145 in Focus

We have teamed up with AvBuyer and Parapex Media to bring you our monthly "Helicopter Spotlight" - This month: the Airbus H145.

What’s the story of the Airbus H145? Which markets is it popular with, and what are the fleet details today? Jeremy Parkin offers an overview of this popular twin-engine turbine model.

The Airbus H145 has its roots in former German manufacturer MBB. With certification of all 145 variants being based on MBB’s original BK117 approval, the twin-engine light utility helicopter model predates MBB’s merger with Aerospatiale in 1992, forming Eurocopter.

The EC145 model that evolved following that merger was later rebranded the Airbus H145 after Airbus Helicopters’ acquisition of Eurocopter in 2014.

How the Airbus H145 Came Into Being

MBB principally made its mark in the helicopter development and manufacturing world with the MBB Bo105, but later joined with Japanese company Kawasaki to develop and manufacture a larger twin-engine model named the BK117.

The BK117 first flew in June 1979 and went through various iterations. The BK117A series had two Lycoming LTS101-650 engines, while the BK117B saw introduction of higher-rated LTS101-750s. Then the BK117C1 model switched engine OEM altogether, with its power being provided by two Turbomeca Arriel 1Es. At that point in the BK117’s history, MBB merged with Aerospatiale and Eurocopter was formed.

From the very first flight of the BK117C2, in June 1999, the model became known as the Eurocopter EC145.

Further evolutions followed – principally the fenestron tail rotor which Aerospatiale had so successfully used on the Gazelle and Dauphin/155 lines. Accordingly, the BK117D2 brought a replacement of the traditional style tail rotor to one with a fenestron.

By this time, Eurocopter had been acquired and rebranded as Airbus Helicopters, and the new style ‘H’ names appeared (ACH in the case of versions built for corporate customers), with the EC145 becoming the Airbus H145.

The Airbus H145 was also the first model to feature Airbus’ in-house designed Helionix avionics system which offers operators in-flight envelope protection, pilot assistance and greater situational awareness.

Keeping the H145 marketing name, the current BK117D3 model has a 150kg advantage over the D2 version, achieved through a combination of a 100kg increase in gross weight and a 50kg decrease in the aircraft weight.

Additionally, the D3 has a newly-designed five-blade bearingless main rotor system to give a smoother ride over the four-blade D2 model. Airbus has subsequently sold around 45 kits to allow operators to upgrade their D2 models to the D3 standard.

Airbus H145 Fleet Data

The EC145/H145 model is especially popular with the Law Enforcement and Air Ambulance markets, with 63% of the fleet being utilized in these sectors at the time of writing. While the type is evidently suited to these roles, the resale potential for these airframes into other markets may be limited due to the cost of reconfiguration for other use.

A further 7% of the fleet is utilized in over-water roles including energy sector, wind farm and Search and Rescue, while just less than 6% of the fleet is used for Corporate/ VIP purposes.

In terms of the global E145/H145 fleet, 37.4% were based in Europe, as of this writing, closely followed by 35.0% across the Americas. Asia and Oceania accounted for a further 19.8%, while 5.9% of the fleet was based in Africa and the Middle East.

The remaining 1.9% (17 units) were primarily based on super yachts and could therefore not be tied to a specific region.

Airbus currently builds around 72 H145s per year, with the greater majority shipping into the civil market, although the proportion for military customers is growing.

With a backlog of approximately three years for new aircraft orders today, and with space being at a premium at the Airbus plant at Donauw?rth, some creativity is being brought to bear with machines for some countries being shipped from Germany prior to first flight.

Examples for Far East markets are dispatched quite early in the process to the Kawasaki plant at Gifu in Japan, while others are sent to Airbus subsidiaries (US, UK and Brazil, for example) for test flying and role equipment fit to free-up space in the flight test hangar. It is worth noting, however, that examples built by Kawasaki are only certified in a limited number of countries, principally the Far East and Oceania.