lift helicopter before, unveiling a concept
design for such an aircraft at the Berlin Air
Show in 2006 as a potential replacement
for Germany’s CH-53Gs. The aircraft was
envisaged to have three powerplants, each
producing 6,700 horsepower ( 5,000 kilowatts), a maximum 650-nm (1,200-km)
range and a 160-knot (300-kilometres-per-
hour) top speed. However, the company
is reaching out to American and Russian
partners to develop a design capable of
meeting France and Germany’s requirements, and it would appear that plans by
the company to develop its own heavy lift
helicopter have, for now, been shelved,
although this is denied by Eurocopter’s
Dominique Maudet, executive vice
president of Governmental helicopters.
When speaking to Rotor & Wing at this
years’ Paris Air Show, he emphasized that
Eurocopter was not necessarily pledging
that the heavy lift helicopter will be a completely new design, “but it could be.” Either
way, the aircraft is a big in both scope and
size: “two to three times bigger than the
NH-90,” notes Maudet.
The procurement of the helicopter
will be performed through the European Defence Agency (EDA); an organization of the European Union tasked with
deepening pan-European cooperation in
armaments procurement. However, the
A Eurocopter EC-725 Caracal of the French Air Force. Apart from the NH-90, this is one of the largest helicopters operated by the French armed forces. It is a development of the company’s Super Puma/Cougar family, although any further increase in size of this aircraft to meet the Franco-German requirement would almost certainly be impossibly expensive.
involvement of the EDA in the project
indicates that the cost of developing such
an aircraft themselves will just be too much
for the French and German governments
combined. “We will need a big budget to
start from scratch”, concedes Maudet.
Instead, the company is looking at existing aircraft designs which can be modernized to meet the requirement, and plans to
“pick and choose elements and concepts
from other aircraft for the design,” which
will eventually fulfil the Franco-German
requirement.
France and Germany’s strategy for procuring the heavy lift rotorcraft is essentially
simple. A standard, existing heavy lift helicopter design will be used as the baseline airframe that will then be extensively
modified to meet the requirements. The
candidate aircraft are the Boeing CH-47F
Chinook, Mil Mi-26T and the Sikorsky CH-
53K. Experiments to find the ideal airframe
have already begun. In November 2008, the
French DGA (Délégation Générale pour
l’Armement) procurement agency received
a Mi-26T on loan, which was flown for a
series of flight trials at Istres Air Force Base
in the south of France near Eurocopter’s
headquarters and factory near Marseilles.
Broadly speaking, French Army officials
who participated in the test flights found
the Mi-26T to be a satisfactory airframe,
although with a five-person crew, a substantial modernization of the types’ avionics will be required to reduce the aircraft’s
flight crew from five to three people. However, the Mi-26T is a relatively inexpensive
option, costing around $10 million per unit.
Moreover, Eurocopter could share the avionics development with the Suhopútnyje
vojská Rossíjskoj Federácii (Russian Army)
which operates the aircraft, and which plans
to upgrade all 16 in its fleet.
Photo courtesy of French Air Force
The Sikorsky CH-53K would bring its
own attractions as a candidate airframe for
conversion into a heavy lift platform. Firstly,
Germany is familiar with operating the
CH-53G type. Secondly, the CH- 53, which
has over 40 illustrious years of US Navy
and Marines service under its belt, would
provide France with a maritime heavy lift
capability by virtue of its design. Heavy lift
from the sea is a particularly important
