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96-502: The Airbus Helicopters H225 (formerly Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma ) is a long-range passenger transport helicopter developed by Eurocopter as the next generation of the civilian Super Puma family. It is a twin-engined aircraft and can carry up to 24 passengers along with two crew and a cabin attendant, dependent on customer configuration. The helicopter is marketed for offshore support and VIP passenger transport duties, as well as public service missions. The civil-orientated EC225 has

192-616: A runway . In 1942, the Sikorsky R-4 became the first helicopter to reach full-scale production . Although most earlier designs used more than one main rotor, the configuration of a single main rotor accompanied by a vertical anti-torque tail rotor (i.e. unicopter , not to be confused with the single-blade monocopter ) has become the most common helicopter configuration. However, twin-rotor helicopters (bicopters), in either tandem or transverse rotors configurations, are sometimes in use due to their greater payload capacity than

288-467: A 30-minute running time in the event of the loss of MGB oil pressure, and has demonstrated up to 50-minute running time. The engine also incorporates a "blade shedding" system to ensure engine integrity during an overspeed instance. Energy absorbent self-sealing fuel tanks are contained in the aircraft's sponsons , along with other equipment such as downward-facing illumination and navigation lighting fixtures. The transmission can accommodate more power than

384-411: A Dual Rescue Hoist, FLIR camera, high-powered searchlights and an advanced autopilot with autohover capability. The EC225 has also been used as an aerial firefighting platform, it can be equipped with a Simplex Aerospace-developed water cannon for dealing with fires in built-up urban areas, both Japan and South Korea operate several aircraft adapted in this manner. Following the 22 October 2012 crash,

480-444: A collective input is made, all the blades change equally, and the result is the helicopter increasing or decreasing in altitude. A swashplate controls the collective and cyclic pitch of the main blades. The swashplate moves up and down, along the main shaft, to change the pitch of both blades. This causes the helicopter to push air downward or upward, depending on the angle of attack . The swashplate can also change its angle to move

576-417: A constant altitude. The pedals serve the same function in both a helicopter and a fixed-wing aircraft, to maintain balanced flight. This is done by applying a pedal input in whichever direction is necessary to center the ball in the turn and bank indicator . Due to the operating characteristics of the helicopter—its ability to take off and land vertically, and to hover for extended periods of time, as well as

672-705: A few more flights and achieved a height of nearly 2.0 metres (6.5 ft), but it proved to be unstable and was abandoned. Gearbox Transmissions can have a single fixed-gear ratio, multiple distinct gear ratios , or continuously variable ratios. Variable-ratio transmissions are used in all sorts of machinery, especially vehicles. Early transmissions included the right-angle drives and other gearing in windmills , horse -powered devices, and steam -powered devices. Applications of these devices included pumps , mills and hoists . Bicycles traditionally have used hub gear or Derailleur gear transmissions, but there are other more recent design innovations. Since

768-401: A fixed-gear or two-speed transmission with no reverse gear ratio. The simplest transmissions used a fixed ratio to provide either a gear reduction or increase in speed, sometimes in conjunction with a change in the orientation of the output shaft. Examples of such transmissions are used in helicopters and wind turbines . In the case of a wind turbine, the first stage of the gearbox is usually

864-463: A gift by their father, would inspire the Wright brothers to pursue the dream of flight. In 1861, the word "helicopter" was coined by Gustave de Ponton d'Amécourt , a French inventor who demonstrated a small steam-powered model. While celebrated as an innovative use of a new metal, aluminum, the model never lifted off the ground. D'Amecourt's linguistic contribution would survive to eventually describe

960-405: A helicopter determines the size, function and capability of that helicopter design. The earliest helicopter engines were simple mechanical devices, such as rubber bands or spindles, which relegated the size of helicopters to toys and small models. For a half century before the first airplane flight, steam engines were used to forward the development of the understanding of helicopter aerodynamics, but

1056-510: A helicopter powered by a gasoline engine with box kites attached to a mast by cables for a rotor, but it never flew. In 1906, two French brothers, Jacques and Louis Breguet , began experimenting with airfoils for helicopters. In 1907, those experiments resulted in the Gyroplane No.1 , possibly as the earliest known example of a quadcopter. Although there is some uncertainty about the date, sometime between 14 August and 29 September 1907,

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1152-416: A helicopter. This is because a helicopter generates its own gusty air while in a hover, which acts against the fuselage and flight control surfaces. The result is constant control inputs and corrections by the pilot to keep the helicopter where it is required to be. Despite the complexity of the task, the control inputs in a hover are simple. The cyclic is used to eliminate drift in the horizontal plane, that

1248-424: A large lounge with seating for up to 12 passengers and a cabin attendant. The emergency medical services (EMS) configuration has medical units for six stretchers and four seats for medical workers. The search and rescue (SAR) configuration allows space for search and rescue equipment with an operator seat, hoistman seat and up to eight rescue seats and three stretchers. While a single pilot is capable of controlling

1344-680: A military counterpart, which was originally designated as the Eurocopter EC725 ; it was rebranded in 2015 as the H225M. In 2015, the EC225 was formally renamed to the H225, in line with Eurocopter's corporate rebranding as Airbus Helicopters . In the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis , oil and gas companies began exploration and extraction activities farther offshore, thus creating a long-term need for more capable rotary aircraft. The development of

1440-437: A planetary gear, to minimize the size while withstanding the high torque inputs from the turbine. Many transmissions – especially for transportation applications – have multiple gears that are used to change the ratio of input speed (e.g. engine rpm) to the output speed (e.g. the speed of a car) as required for a given situation. Gear (ratio) selection can be manual, semi-automatic, or automatic. A manual transmission requires

1536-477: A process of rebracketing , the word is often (erroneously, from an etymological point of view) perceived by English speakers as consisting of heli- and -copter , leading to words like helipad and quadcopter . English language nicknames for "helicopter" include "chopper", "copter", "heli", and "whirlybird". In the United States military, the common slang is "helo" pronounced /ˈhiː.loʊ/. A helicopter

1632-449: A range of approximately 600–7000 rpm, while the vehicle's speeds requires the wheels to rotate in the range of 0–1800 rpm. In the early mass-produced automobiles, the standard transmission design was manual : the combination of gears was selected by the driver through a lever (the gear stick ) that displaced gears and gear groups along their axes. Starting in 1939, cars using various types of automatic transmission became available in

1728-494: A rotor. The spinning creates lift, and the toy flies when released. The 4th-century AD Daoist book Baopuzi by Ge Hong ( 抱朴子 "Master who Embraces Simplicity") reportedly describes some of the ideas inherent to rotary wing aircraft. Designs similar to the Chinese helicopter toy appeared in some Renaissance paintings and other works. In the 18th and early 19th centuries Western scientists developed flying machines based on

1824-441: A single main rotor, but torque created by its aerodynamic drag must be countered by an opposed torque. The design that Igor Sikorsky settled on for his VS-300 was a smaller tail rotor. The tail rotor pushes or pulls against the tail to counter the torque effect, and this has become the most common configuration for helicopter design, usually at the end of a tail boom . Some helicopters use other anti-torque controls instead of

1920-417: A state called translational lift which provides extra lift without increasing power. This state, most typically, occurs when the airspeed reaches approximately 16–24 knots (30–44 km/h; 18–28 mph), and may be necessary for a helicopter to obtain flight. In forward flight a helicopter's flight controls behave more like those of a fixed-wing aircraft. Applying forward pressure on the cyclic will cause

2016-429: Is a cylindrical metal shaft that extends upwards from the transmission. At the top of the mast is the attachment point for the rotor blades called the hub. Main rotor systems are classified according to how the rotor blades are attached and move relative to the hub. There are three basic types: hingeless, fully articulated, and teetering; although some modern rotor systems use a combination of these. Most helicopters have

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2112-460: Is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors . This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically , to hover , and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft and many forms of short take-off and landing ( STOL ) or short take-off and vertical landing ( STOVL ) aircraft cannot perform without

2208-452: Is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more horizontally-spinning rotors. By contrast the autogyro (or gyroplane) and gyrodyne have a free-spinning rotor for all or part of the flight envelope, relying on a separate thrust system to propel the craft forwards, so that the airflow sets the rotor spinning to provide lift. The compound helicopter also has a separate thrust system, but continues to supply power to

2304-452: Is called an aerial crane . Aerial cranes are used to place heavy equipment, like radio transmission towers and large air conditioning units, on the tops of tall buildings, or when an item must be raised up in a remote area, such as a radio tower raised on the top of a hill or mountain. Helicopters are used as aerial cranes in the logging industry to lift trees out of terrain where vehicles cannot travel and where environmental concerns prohibit

2400-470: Is complete with a four-axis digital autopilot. During a typical flight, the pilot programs the route into the aircraft and then monitors it, as opposed to direct continuous control of the flight; the need for paper charts has been eliminated by these systems. Under autopilot, the automatic flight control system acts to prevent pilot actions from exceeding the established flight envelope; the EC225 remains flyable with all automatic systems disabled. From initiating

2496-475: Is connected to the engine via a torque converter (or a fluid coupling prior to the 1960s), instead of the friction clutch used by most manual transmissions and dual-clutch transmissions. A dual-clutch transmission (DCT) uses two separate clutches for odd and even gear sets . The design is often similar to two separate manual transmissions with their respective clutches contained within one housing, and working as one unit. In car and truck applications,

2592-547: Is equipped to stabilize and provide limited medical treatment to a patient while in flight. The use of helicopters as air ambulances is often referred to as " MEDEVAC ", and patients are referred to as being "airlifted", or "medevaced". This use was pioneered in the Korean War , when time to reach a medical facility was reduced to three hours from the eight hours needed in World War II , and further reduced to two hours by

2688-548: Is essentially a conventional manual transmission that uses automatic actuation to operate the clutch and/or shift between gears. Many early versions of these transmissions were semi-automatic in operation, such as Autostick , which automatically control only the clutch , but still require the driver's input to initiate gear changes. Some of these systems are also referred to as clutchless manual systems. Modern versions of these systems that are fully automatic in operation, such as Selespeed and Easytronic , can control both

2784-410: Is powered by two Turbomeca Makila 2A1 turboshaft engines mounted over the cabin; these engines are capable of providing 14 per cent more engine power and feature a redundant dual-channel full authority digital engine control (FADEC) system for high reliability, a further backup system is present in the event of both FADEC systems failing. The FADEC system ensures that engine power is always kept within

2880-543: Is projected to continue manufacturing activity until at least 2030. The EC225 is based on the Eurocopter AS332L2 Super Puma , improving upon the design with a five-blade main rotor incorporating a new airfoil shape to reduce vibration and noise levels. The blades of the rotors feature a composite spar and parabolic blade tips; they can also be equipped with an anti-icing system to enable the aircraft to operate within very cold climates. The helicopter

2976-678: Is the Sud-Ouest Djinn , and an example of the hot tip jet helicopter is the YH-32 Hornet . Some radio-controlled helicopters and smaller, helicopter-type unmanned aerial vehicles , use electric motors or motorcycle engines. Radio-controlled helicopters may also have piston engines that use fuels other than gasoline, such as nitromethane . Some turbine engines commonly used in helicopters can also use biodiesel instead of jet fuel. There are also human-powered helicopters . A helicopter has four flight control inputs. These are

Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma - Misplaced Pages Continue

3072-411: Is to control forward and back, right and left. The collective is used to maintain altitude. The pedals are used to control nose direction or heading . It is the interaction of these controls that makes hovering so difficult, since an adjustment in any one control requires an adjustment of the other two, creating a cycle of constant correction. As a helicopter moves from hover to forward flight it enters

3168-572: The Bell 205 and the Erickson S-64 Aircrane helitanker. Helicopters are used as air ambulances for emergency medical assistance in situations when an ambulance cannot easily or quickly reach the scene, or cannot transport the patient to a medical facility in time. Helicopters are also used when patients need to be transported between medical facilities and air transportation is the most practical method. An air ambulance helicopter

3264-588: The Bell 206 with 3,400. Most were in North America with 34.3% then in Europe with 28.0% followed by Asia-Pacific with 18.6%, Latin America with 11.6%, Africa with 5.3% and Middle East with 1.7%. The earliest references for vertical flight came from China. Since around 400 BC, Chinese children have played with bamboo flying toys (or Chinese top). This bamboo-copter is spun by rolling a stick attached to

3360-527: The Cornu helicopter which used two 6.1-metre (20 ft) counter-rotating rotors driven by a 24 hp (18 kW) Antoinette engine. On 13 November 1907, it lifted its inventor to 0.3 metres (1 ft) and remained aloft for 20 seconds. Even though this flight did not surpass the flight of the Gyroplane No. 1, it was reported to be the first truly free flight with a pilot. Cornu's helicopter completed

3456-531: The Department for Transport awarded Bristow Group the SAR-H contract, operating a mix of Sikorsky S-92 and AgustaWestland AW189 instead. By 2011, CHC Helicopter had the largest operational fleet of EC225s, the type comprising a fifth of the firm's total rotorcraft by 2015. CHC principally use the type for serving the offshore oil and gas industries, as well as search and rescue missions. Another milestone

3552-624: The United Kingdom and Norway , chose to maintain operational restrictions for the type. Norwegian operator Statoil , who had contracted the CHC H225 which crashed, maintained it will not return to using the helicopter even if restrictions are lifted. The company has instead relied on the Sikorsky S-92 to meet its needs since the crash. By December 2016, three separate lawsuits were filed by separate H225 operators, claiming that

3648-499: The Vietnam War . In naval service a prime function of rescue helicopters is to promptly retrieve downed aircrew involved in crashes occurring upon launch or recovery aboard aircraft carriers. In past years this function was performed by destroyers escorting the carrier, but since then helicopters have proved vastly more effective. Police departments and other law enforcement agencies use helicopters to pursue suspects and patrol

3744-431: The torque and power output of an internal combustion engine varies with its rpm , automobiles powered by ICEs require multiple gear ratios to keep the engine within its power band to produce optimal power, fuel efficiency , and smooth operation. Multiple gear ratios are also needed to provide sufficient acceleration and velocity for safe & reliable operation at modern highway speeds. ICEs typically operate over

3840-558: The Bambi bucket, are usually filled by submerging the bucket into lakes, rivers, reservoirs, or portable tanks. Tanks fitted onto helicopters are filled from a hose while the helicopter is on the ground or water is siphoned from lakes or reservoirs through a hanging snorkel as the helicopter hovers over the water source. Helitack helicopters are also used to deliver firefighters, who rappel down to inaccessible areas, and to resupply firefighters. Common firefighting helicopters include variants of

3936-762: The Chinese top in a model consisting of contrarotating turkey flight feathers as rotor blades, and in 1784, demonstrated it to the French Academy of Sciences . Sir George Cayley , influenced by a childhood fascination with the Chinese flying top, developed a model of feathers, similar to that of Launoy and Bienvenu, but powered by rubber bands. By the end of the century, he had progressed to using sheets of tin for rotor blades and springs for power. His writings on his experiments and models would become influential on future aviation pioneers. Alphonse Pénaud would later develop coaxial rotor model helicopter toys in 1870, also powered by rubber bands. One of these toys, given as

Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma - Misplaced Pages Continue

4032-478: The Chinese toy. It was not until the early 1480s, when Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci created a design for a machine that could be described as an " aerial screw ", that any recorded advancement was made towards vertical flight. His notes suggested that he built small flying models, but there were no indications for any provision to stop the rotor from making the craft rotate. As scientific knowledge increased and became more accepted, people continued to pursue

4128-457: The DCT functions as an automatic transmission, requiring no driver input to change gears. A continuously variable transmission (CVT) can change seamlessly through a continuous range of gear ratios . This contrasts with other transmissions that provide a limited number of gear ratios in fixed steps. The flexibility of a CVT with suitable control may allow the engine to operate at a constant RPM while

4224-586: The EC225 in competition against the Sikorsky S-92 offered by the Soteria Search and Rescue consortium for the United Kingdom's Search and Rescue – Helicopter (SAR-H) program to replace the RAF Search and Rescue Force 's Westland Sea King fleet. In 2010, Soteria was awarded the contract; however, in 2011 the contract was halted as Soteria had access to confidential information. In 2013,

4320-501: The EC225 is equipped with a full glass cockpit with active-matrix liquid crystal displays ; these include four 6-inch by 8-inch multi-functional displays as the predominant instrumentation for key flight information, two 4-inch by 5-inch monitors for displaying aircraft parameters, and a 3-inch screen for backup. The advanced helicopter cockpit and avionics system is described as serving to reduce pilot and crew workload, being used to display flight management and sub-systems information and

4416-667: The EC225, an enlarged variant of the AS332 Super Puma , was announced by Eurocopter in June 1998. The principal differences of the EC225 from the preceding AS332 are the adoption of Spheriflex rotor technology and new Turbomeca Makila 2A turboshaft engines, along with a redesigned main gearbox to accommodate the rotor and engine changes, and the addition of an integrated flight display system; these changes resulted in higher speeds and passenger comfort, as well as greater flight safety and reduced operating costs. On 27 November 2000,

4512-453: The Gyroplane No. 1 lifted its pilot into the air about 0.6 metres (2 ft) for a minute. The Gyroplane No.   1 proved to be extremely unsteady and required a man at each corner of the airframe to hold it steady. For this reason, the flights of the Gyroplane No.   1 are considered to be the first manned flight of a helicopter, but not a free or untethered flight. That same year, fellow French inventor Paul Cornu designed and built

4608-570: The Makila 2B engine was dropped from the EC225e as a cost reduction measure, development of the other structural and avionics aspects is proceeding. In 2015, Airbus Helicopters announced at the Paris Air Show that it had begun development of a clean-sheet successor to the EC225, initially designated Airbus Helicopters X6 , but development was stopped in early 2018. The EC225's production line

4704-571: The Martian atmosphere is 100 times thinner than Earth's, its two blades spin at close to 3,000 revolutions a minute, approximately 10 times faster than that of a terrestrial helicopter. In 2017, 926 civil helicopters were shipped for $ 3.68 billion, led by Airbus Helicopters with $ 1.87 billion for 369 rotorcraft, Leonardo Helicopters with $ 806 million for 102 (first three-quarters only), Bell Helicopter with $ 696 million for 132, then Robinson Helicopter with $ 161 million for 305. By October 2018,

4800-547: The US market. These vehicles used the engine's own power to change the effective gear ratio depending on the load so as to keep the engine running close to its optimal rotation speed. Automatic transmissions now are used in more than 2/3 of cars globally, and on almost all new cars in the US. Most currently-produced passenger cars with gasoline or diesel engines use transmissions with 4–10 forward gear ratios (also called speeds) and one reverse gear ratio. Electric vehicles typically use

4896-569: The aircraft under visual meteorical conditions, two pilots are used in a typical crew complement and, dependent on role, a cabin attendant or flight engineer may also be present. In January 2005, Algeria became the first country to use the EC225 when the Algerian Ministerial Air Liaisons Group (GLAM) took delivery of a single helicopter for VIP transport duties. In 2009, the AirKnight consortium offered

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4992-550: The aircraft's handling properties under low airspeed conditions—it has proved advantageous to conduct tasks that were previously not possible with other aircraft, or were time- or work-intensive to accomplish on the ground. Today, helicopter uses include transportation of people and cargo, military uses, construction, firefighting, search and rescue , tourism , medical transport, law enforcement, agriculture, news and media , and aerial observation , among others. A helicopter used to carry loads connected to long cables or slings

5088-466: The aviation industry; and the turboshaft engine for helicopter use, pioneered in December 1951 by the aforementioned Kaman K-225, finally gave helicopters an engine with a large amount of power and a low weight penalty. Turboshafts are also more reliable than piston engines, especially when producing the sustained high levels of power required by a helicopter. The turboshaft engine was able to be scaled to

5184-435: The blades angle forwards or backwards, or left and right, to make the helicopter move in those directions. The anti-torque pedals are located in the same position as the rudder pedals in a fixed-wing aircraft, and serve a similar purpose, namely to control the direction in which the nose of the aircraft is pointed. Application of the pedal in a given direction changes the pitch of the tail rotor blades, increasing or reducing

5280-677: The building of roads. These operations are referred to as longline because of the long, single sling line used to carry the load. In military service helicopters are often useful for delivery of outsized slung loads that would not fit inside ordinary cargo aircraft: artillery pieces, large machinery (field radars, communications gear, electrical generators), or pallets of bulk cargo. In military operations these payloads are often delivered to remote locations made inaccessible by mountainous or riverine terrain, or naval vessels at sea. In electronic news gathering , helicopters have provided aerial views of some major news stories, and have been doing so, from

5376-401: The clutch operation and the gear shifts automatically, without any input from the driver. An automatic transmission does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving conditions. The most common design of automatic transmissions is the hydraulic automatic, which typically uses planetary gearsets that are operated using hydraulics . The transmission

5472-406: The cockpit from overhead. The control is called the cyclic because it changes cyclic pitch of the main blades. The result is to tilt the rotor disk in a particular direction, resulting in the helicopter moving in that direction. If the pilot pushes the cyclic forward, the rotor disk tilts forward, and the rotor produces a thrust in the forward direction. If the pilot pushes the cyclic to the side,

5568-589: The crash of an H225 in Norway which revealed a potential safety issue with the main rotor assembly, the EASA issued an emergency airworthiness directive that grounded the H225 fleet; by July 2016, 80 per cent of the worldwide fleet had been grounded as a result, while some operators such as the French military continued to operate its fleet. In October 2016, the grounding order by the EASA was lifted; some countries, including

5664-470: The cyclic, the collective, the anti-torque pedals, and the throttle. The cyclic control is usually located between the pilot's legs and is commonly called the cyclic stick or just cyclic . On most helicopters, the cyclic is similar to a joystick. However, the Robinson R22 and Robinson R44 have a unique teetering bar cyclic control system and a few helicopters have a cyclic control that descends into

5760-465: The development of an improved variant, the EC225e. The EC225e features numerous changes including new avionics systems, such as the TCAS II collision avoidance system, an automatic identification system, and a specialized rig-approach system; it was also intended to feature an improved Turbomeca Makila 2B engine to increase the EC225e's maximum takeoff weight by 550 kg, and an additional fuel tank in

5856-545: The driver to manually select the gears by operating a gear stick and clutch (which is usually a foot pedal for cars or a hand lever for motorcycles). Most transmissions in modern cars use synchromesh to synchronise the speeds of the input and output shafts. However, prior to the 1950s, most cars used non-synchronous transmissions . A sequential manual transmission is a type of non-synchronous transmission used mostly for motorcycles and racing cars. It produces faster shift times than synchronized manual transmissions, through

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5952-483: The early 21st century, as well as recently weaponized utilities such as artillery spotting , aerial bombing and suicide attacks . The English word helicopter is adapted from the French word hélicoptère , coined by Gustave Ponton d'Amécourt in 1861, which originates from the Greek helix ( ἕλιξ ), genitive helikos (ἕλῐκος), "helix, spiral, whirl, convolution" and pteron ( πτερόν ) "wing". In

6048-439: The event was taken by Max Skladanowsky , but it remains lost . In 1885, Thomas Edison was given US$ 1,000 (equivalent to $ 34,000 today) by James Gordon Bennett, Jr. , to conduct experiments towards developing flight. Edison built a helicopter and used the paper for a stock ticker to create guncotton , with which he attempted to power an internal combustion engine. The helicopter was damaged by explosions and one of his workers

6144-486: The first half of the 20th century was that the amount of power produced by an engine was not able to overcome the engine's weight in vertical flight. This was overcome in early successful helicopters by using the smallest engines available. When the compact, flat engine was developed, the helicopter industry found a lighter-weight powerplant easily adapted to small helicopters, although radial engines continued to be used for larger helicopters. Turbine engines revolutionized

6240-772: The first prototype performed its maiden flight. In July 2004, the type received its airworthiness certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency . In December 2015, the H225, a new designation used for the EC225, received certification from the Interstate Aviation Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States ; this made the H225 the first foreign heavy-lift helicopter to become certified in Russia. In February 2014, Airbus Helicopters announced at Heli-Expo 2014

6336-515: The high operating cost of helicopters cost-effective in ensuring that oil platforms continue to operate. Various companies specialize in this type of operation. NASA developed Ingenuity , a 1.8 kg (4.0 lb) helicopter used to survey Mars (along with a rover). It began service in February 2021 and was retired due to sustained rotor blade damage in January 2024 after 73 sorties. As

6432-480: The idea of vertical flight. In July 1754, Russian Mikhail Lomonosov had developed a small coaxial modeled after the Chinese top but powered by a wound-up spring device and demonstrated it to the Russian Academy of Sciences . It was powered by a spring, and was suggested as a method to lift meteorological instruments. In 1783, Christian de Launoy , and his mechanic , Bienvenu, used a coaxial version of

6528-504: The in-service and stored helicopter fleet of 38,570 with civil or government operators was led Robinson Helicopter with 24.7% followed by Airbus Helicopters with 24.4%, then Bell with 20.5 and Leonardo with 8.4%, Russian Helicopters with 7.7%, Sikorsky Aircraft with 7.2%, MD Helicopters with 3.4% and other with 2.2%. The most widespread model is the piston Robinson R44 with 5,600, then the H125/ AS350 with 3,600 units, followed by

6624-662: The lack of an airstrip would make transport via fixed-wing aircraft impossible. The use of transport helicopters to deliver troops as an attack force on an objective is referred to as " air assault ". Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) helicopter systems of varying sizes are developed by companies for military reconnaissance and surveillance duties. Naval forces also use helicopters equipped with dipping sonar for anti-submarine warfare , since they can operate from small ships. Oil companies charter helicopters to move workers and parts quickly to remote drilling sites located at sea or in remote locations. The speed advantage over boats makes

6720-581: The late 1960s. Helicopters have also been used in films, both in front and behind the camera. The largest single non-combat helicopter operation in history was the disaster management operation following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster . Hundreds of pilots were involved in airdrop and observation missions, making dozens of sorties a day for several months. " Helitack " is the use of helicopters to combat wildland fires . The helicopters are used for aerial firefighting (water bombing) and may be fitted with tanks or carry helibuckets . Helibuckets, such as

6816-555: The limited power did not allow for manned flight. The introduction of the internal combustion engine at the end of the 19th century became the watershed for helicopter development as engines began to be developed and produced that were powerful enough to allow for helicopters able to lift humans. Early helicopter designs utilized custom-built engines or rotary engines designed for airplanes, but these were soon replaced by more powerful automobile engines and radial engines . The single, most-limiting factor of helicopter development during

6912-475: The limits of the gearbox . Many of the mechanical components, particularly of the engines, were designed to be modular to ease maintenance, and composite materials were used where possible to reduce the aircraft's weight. A key safety feature of the aircraft's main gear box (MGB) is an emergency oil spraying sub-system present in the lubrication system; this is designed to exceed the JAR 29 Standard's requirements of

7008-651: The major North Sea Super Puma operators, CHC Helicopter , Bond Offshore Helicopters and Bristow Helicopters decided to ground all AS332 and EC225 Super Puma helicopters. On 25 October 2012 it was announced that the problem was suspected to relate to the main gearbox vertical shaft; the AS 332 L1 and L2 versions of the Super Puma could be refitted with an older design, allowing them to resume flying. On 8 November 2012 some Super Pumas of Bond Offshore Helicopters returned to flight. The EC225 grounding continued into 2013, following

7104-419: The maximum output of the engines; however two aircraft were lost in 2012 due to the cracking of the bevel gear shaft, a gearbox component. In response, the design of the transmission was modified in 2013, and the onboard health and usage monitoring system (HUMS) was upgraded to provide real-time monitoring of the bevel gear shaft against the threat of crack formation. In terms of cockpit equipment and avionics,

7200-485: The monorotor design, and coaxial-rotor , tiltrotor and compound helicopters are also all flying today. Four-rotor helicopters ( quadcopters ) were pioneered as early as 1907 in France, and along with other types of multicopters , have been developed mainly for specialized applications such as commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) due to the rapid expansion of drone racing and aerial photography markets in

7296-601: The nearby park, the Parco Forlanini. Emmanuel Dieuaide's steam-powered design featured counter-rotating rotors powered through a hose from a boiler on the ground. In 1887 Parisian inventor, Gustave Trouvé , built and flew a tethered electric model helicopter. In July 1901, the maiden flight of Hermann Ganswindt 's helicopter took place in Berlin-Schöneberg; this was probably the first heavier-than-air motor-driven flight carrying humans. A movie covering

7392-464: The nose to pitch down, with a resultant increase in airspeed and loss of altitude. Aft cyclic will cause the nose to pitch up, slowing the helicopter and causing it to climb. Increasing collective (power) while maintaining a constant airspeed will induce a climb while decreasing collective will cause a descent. Coordinating these two inputs, down collective plus aft cyclic or up collective plus forward cyclic, will result in airspeed changes while maintaining

7488-411: The power normally required to be diverted for the tail rotor to be applied fully to the main rotors, increasing the aircraft's power efficiency and lifting capacity. There are several common configurations that use the counter-rotating effect to benefit the rotorcraft: Tip jet designs let the rotor push itself through the air and avoid generating torque. The number, size and type of engine(s) used on

7584-420: The rear baggage compartment to extend its range to 300 nautical miles with up to ten passengers on board. Some, but not all, modifications can be retrofitted onto existing EC225s. In the same announcement, in February 2014, Lease Corporation International said that they had placed a $ 645 million order for 15 EC225e (along with 6 Airbus Helicopters EC175 ) helicopters as the launch customer. In February 2016,

7680-436: The rotor disk tilts to that side and produces thrust in that direction, causing the helicopter to hover sideways. The collective pitch control or collective is located on the left side of the pilot's seat with a settable friction control to prevent inadvertent movement. The collective changes the pitch angle of all the main rotor blades collectively (i.e. all at the same time) and independently of their position. Therefore, if

7776-406: The rotor in cruise, which allows its rotation to be slowed down , thus increasing the maximum speed of the aircraft. The Lockheed AH-56A Cheyenne diverted up to 90% of its engine power to a pusher propeller during forward flight. There are three basic flight conditions for a helicopter: hover, forward flight and the transition between the two. Hovering is the most challenging part of flying

7872-422: The rotor throughout normal flight. The rotor system, or more simply rotor , is the rotating part of a helicopter that generates lift . A rotor system may be mounted horizontally, as main rotors are, providing lift vertically, or it may be mounted vertically, such as a tail rotor, to provide horizontal thrust to counteract torque from the main rotors. The rotor consists of a mast, hub and rotor blades. The mast

7968-418: The size of the helicopter being designed, so that all but the lightest of helicopter models are powered by turbine engines today. Special jet engines developed to drive the rotor from the rotor tips are referred to as tip jets . Tip jets powered by a remote compressor are referred to as cold tip jets, while those powered by combustion exhaust are referred to as hot tip jets. An example of a cold jet helicopter

8064-483: The skies. Since helicopters can achieve a unique aerial view, they are often used in conjunction with police on the ground to report on suspects' locations and movements. They are often mounted with lighting and heat-sensing equipment for night pursuits. Military forces use attack helicopters to conduct aerial attacks on ground targets. Such helicopters are mounted with missile launchers and miniguns . Transport helicopters are used to ferry troops and supplies where

8160-406: The startup sequence to being ready to takeoff only takes three minutes. There are currently a total of four principal configurations designed by Airbus Helicopters for the EC225. The passenger transport version has a crash-worthy seating arrangement for up to 19 passengers with a high-density seating arrangement accommodating up to 28 passengers available to be fitted. The VIP transport version has

8256-479: The tail rotor, such as the ducted fan (called Fenestron or FANTAIL ) and NOTAR . NOTAR provides anti-torque similar to the way a wing develops lift through the use of the Coandă effect on the tail boom. The use of two or more horizontal rotors turning in opposite directions is another configuration used to counteract the effects of torque on the aircraft without relying on an anti-torque tail rotor. This allows

8352-448: The throttle is to maintain enough engine power to keep the rotor RPM within allowable limits so that the rotor produces enough lift for flight. In single-engine helicopters, the throttle control is a motorcycle-style twist grip mounted on the collective control, while dual-engine helicopters have a power lever for each engine. A compound helicopter has an additional system for thrust and, typically, small stub fixed wings . This offloads

8448-417: The thrust produced by the tail rotor and causing the nose to yaw in the direction of the applied pedal. The pedals mechanically change the pitch of the tail rotor altering the amount of thrust produced. Helicopter rotors are designed to operate in a narrow range of RPM . The throttle controls the power produced by the engine, which is connected to the rotor by a fixed ratio transmission. The purpose of

8544-584: The type had been sold in a defective state due to the flaw being "inherent". The EC225 Super Puma is used for offshore drilling, corporate companies, law enforcement and governments. The 34th Transport Aviation Division (People's Liberation Army Air Force) also flies EC225s. [REDACTED]   Kurdistan Region [REDACTED]   Vietnam Data from Airbus Helicopters General characteristics Performance Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Helicopter A helicopter

8640-419: The use of dog clutches rather than synchromesh. Sequential manual transmissions also restrict the driver to selecting either the next or previous gear, in a successive order. A semi-automatic transmission is where some of the operation is automated (often the actuation of the clutch), but the driver's input is required to move off from a standstill or to change gears. An automated manual transmission (AMT)

8736-732: The validation of new safety measures by the EASA, the type was progressively returned to service following modifications. By mid-2015, all 49 EC225s operating in the North Sea fleets in the UK had been retrofitted with a redesigned bevel wheel vertical shaft to avoid any recurrence. In March 2015, the Japan Coast Guard accepted delivery of its fifth and final EC225; outfitted for performing search and rescue missions, they shall also be used for security enforcement, territorial sea enforcement/monitoring and disaster relief operations. The EC225

8832-452: The vehicle moves at varying speeds. CVTs are used in cars, tractors, side-by-sides , motor scooters, snowmobiles , bicycles, and earthmoving equipment . The most common type of CVT uses two pulleys connected by a belt or chain ; however, several other designs have also been used at times. Gearboxes are often a major source of noise and vibration in vehicles and stationary machinery. Higher sound levels are generally emitted when

8928-572: The vertical flight he had envisioned. Steam power was popular with other inventors as well. In 1877, the Italian engineer, inventor and aeronautical pioneer Enrico Forlanini developed an unmanned helicopter powered by a steam engine . It rose to a height of 13 meters (43 feet), where it remained for 20 seconds, after a vertical take-off from a park in Milan . Milan has dedicated its city airport to Enrico Forlanini, also named Linate Airport , as well as

9024-790: Was a candidate for the Norwegian All Weather Search and Rescue Helicopter (NAWSARH) to replace the Westland Sea King Mk.43B of the Royal Norwegian Air Force in 2015; other candidates were the AgustaWestland AW101 , Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey , NHIndustries NH90 and Sikorsky S-92 . By 9 July 2013, only the AW101 and the EC225 remained as contenders; in December 2013, the AW101 was selected instead. On 2 June 2016, following

9120-486: Was badly burned. Edison reported that it would take a motor with a ratio of three to four pounds per horsepower produced to be successful, based on his experiments. Ján Bahýľ , a Slovak inventor, adapted the internal combustion engine to power his helicopter model that reached a height of 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) in 1901. On 5 May 1905, his helicopter reached 4 meters (13 feet) in altitude and flew for over 1,500 meters (4,900 feet). In 1908, Edison patented his own design for

9216-422: Was reached in 2011 when Eurocopter delivered the 100th production EC225 to Bristow Group. In March 2013, leasing company Milestone Aviation Group placed a record order for 30 EC225s. Due to its popularity in offshore passenger transport, the EC225 is also commonly used as an offshore Search and Rescue aircraft, with operators based in Norway, the UK and Australia. In this role, aircraft are typically equipped with

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