Don't take my word for it, but Eurocopter has quite publicly thrown down the technology gauntlet in the helicopter world, an aerospace sector where it dominates with 51% market share, though one where it rarely trumpets the details of its advanced R&D.
Speaking to reporters at the Heli-Expo show in Anaheim, California, yesterday morning, Eurocopter president and CEO Lutz Bertling confirmed that the EADS subsidiary has again boosted its R&D budget by double digits this year, and results of that investment are slowly being unveiled (though in some cases, not slow enough, apparently....)
The video below is a segment of Lutz's talk, and in case you can't quite hear it, his main points are:
- Eurocopter has successfully flown an EC155 as an unmanned aerial vehicle as part of a military program. Sources tell me the flight took place in June 2008 somewhere in France.
- Eurocopter has completed a GPS-controlled hospital-to-hospital flight in a very hostile environment in the French mountains in an EC145. (I haven't yet gotten clarification of what this is, exactly)
- Eurocopter has "pre-developed" one new helicopter...
- Eurocopter is "looking for the step beyond" - faster, greener helicopters in the-2020-2025 timeframe. Early results of the green program could be a diesel-powered EC120 in the next 2-2.5 years.
Bertling didn't mention anything about the company's new "X3" high speed demonstrator project, a program Rolls-Royce happened to mention it is press briefing later in the day. Eurocopter press aids denied the existence of the program when asked what Rolls was talking about.
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