Airbus Helicopters


Airbus Helicopters SAS is the helicopter manufacturing division of Airbus. It is the largest in the industry in terms of revenues and turbine helicopter deliveries. Its head office is located at Marseille Provence Airport in Marignane, France, near Marseille. The main facilities of Airbus Helicopters are at its headquarters in Marignane, France and in Donauwörth, Germany, with additional production plants in Brazil, Australia, Spain, Romania and the United States. The company was renamed from Eurocopter to Airbus Helicopters on 2 January 2014.
In 2018, Airbus delivered 356 helicopters, a 54% share of the civil or parapublic market over five seats.

History

Airbus Helicopters was formed in 1992 as Eurocopter Group, through the merger of the helicopter divisions of Aérospatiale and DASA. The company's heritage traces back to Blériot and Lioré et Olivier in France and to Messerschmitt and Focke-Wulf in Germany.
Airbus Helicopters and its predecessor companies have established a wide range of helicopter firsts, including the first production turboshaft-powered helicopter ; the introduction of the Fenestron shrouded tail rotor ; the first helicopter certified for full flight in icing conditions ; the first production helicopter with a Fly-by-wire control system ; the first helicopter to use a Fly-by-light primary control system ; and the first ever landing of a helicopter on Mt. Everest.
As a consequence of the merger of Airbus Helicopters' former parents in 2000, the firm is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Airbus. The creation of what was then called EADS in 2000 also incorporated CASA of Spain, which itself had a history of helicopter-related activities dating back to Talleres Loring, including local assembly of the Bo105.
Today, Airbus Helicopters has four main plants in Europe, plus 32 subsidiaries and participants around the world, including those in Brisbane, Australia, Albacete, Spain and Grand Prairie, USA.
Since approximately 2006, Eurocopter has been involved in the planning for the proposed pan-European Future Transport Helicopter project.
As of 2014, more than 12,000 Airbus Helicopters were in service with over 3,000 customers in around 150 countries.
Eurocopter sold 422 helicopters in 2013 and delivered 497 helicopters that year. In 2014, AH built a concrete cylinder for testing helicopters before first flight.

Historical emblems

Historical emblems of the company:

Products

Some of the helicopters were renamed in 2015, resembling Airbus airplane naming.
When the division changed its name from Eurocopter Group to Airbus Helicopters in 2014 the trade names of the products were changed to reflect this. Suffixes, as well as the differentiation for single or twin engines, were no longer to be used. Military versions were to be symbolized by the letter M. The only exceptions to this new branding were the AS365, the AS565, the Tiger and the NH90, which will keep their current names.:

Projects