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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 0791.PDF
In-service report: EC145 The BK117 helicopter was ahead of its time, but failed to sell as well as expected. Can its EC145 derivative, with improved payload and performance, do better? ANDREW HEALEY / LONDON Curocopter's BK117 was once con sidered too big for the para-public market. Demands for increased payload have brought the twin-M turbine helicopter back into fash ion, but revamped as the upgraded EC 145. Initial customers for the EC145, law- enforcement agencies and air medical operators, praise the improved helicopter's payload and performance. With its rear clamshell doors and easy accessibility, the EC145 is heir to the her itage of German dependability, a reputation built up by the MBB-designed BO105 light twin and the larger BK117, which were developed jointly with Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries in a 60:40 risk-sharing partnership that continues with the EC 145. Although its heyday was in the 1970s, many of the 1,400 BO105s built are still in public service, a testament to its rugged performance rather than sleek looks. Sales of its larger successor, the BK117, were ini tially slow. The helicopter first flew in 1979 and received German certification in 1982, but it was not until US approval was gained in 1985 that sales picked up. The emergency medical service market was by then becoming established in the USA and the BK117's bigger cabin, with rear and side loading capability, gave it an edge over other helicopters. Broadening appeal With the six- to eight-passenger BK117, MBB hoped to broaden the appeal of its sturdy, bearingless main-rotor helicopters into the lucrative corporate market. Comments by the pilot of a BK117 who used to transport a Middle Eastern VIP around the UK in the late 1980s typify the market's reaction: "Great payload and phe nomenal performance, but the rigid rotor transmits any turbulence straight into the cabin. On high skids, it's quite a climb to get in the back too - no good for high heels. More like a Land Rover than a Mercedes sedan." In the para-public market, meanwhile, the BK117 faced competition from the new generation of light twins, including the MD Helicopters Explorer and Eurocopter's own EC135. Efforts were made to promote the BK117 in the UK for fire service support - "but in the end it was just too big and too expensive", says Nick Kidd, at the time test pilot for UK distribu tor McAlpine Helicopters. "The smaller MD 900 and EC135, by now starting to arrive on the scene, were cheaper and at thevtime offered the capacity that emer gency services needed." Despite such setbacks, sales reached respectable levels and the helicopter matured with increased power and pay- load. As the initial BK117-A1 evolved through the -Bl, -2 and -3 into the defini tive -CI model, the helicopter's maximum take-off weight grew from 2,850kg (6,3001b) to 3,350kg, and the Lycoming (now Honeywell) LTS101 engines were replaced by Turbomeca Arriel lE2s. When France's civil defence service, the Securite Civile, began looking in the mid- 1990s for a helicopter to replace its fleet of 28 25-31 MAY 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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