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Is it safe to fly in a helicopter? Today we will clarify a doubt that perhaps many of you have when it comes to flying in this type of aircraft.
On 2022, Airbus Helicopters record 374 gross orders (grandchildren: 362), highlighting the ongoing recovery of the market with the impressive number of 216 single engine light helicopters sold. Deliveries increased from 338 on 2021 a 344 on 2022, contributing to the preliminary quota of the 52% of Airbus Helicopters in the civil and general public market. Airbus helicopter fleet flight hours have returned to pre-COVID levels in 2019.
With this initial context, and advancing with this publication that has the objective of knowing more about these aircraft, that often seem so far away for the general public or for followers of commercial passenger aviation, today we will review very important issues related to helicopters.
Helicopters and your safety
Together with Airbus, we have prepared a series of questions and answers, thus transmitting essential information for those people who want to know more about these machines and their safety. For this, we spoke with Erick Pérez Technical and Operations Director at Airbus Helicopters México and Alberto Robles Director of Airbus Helicopters for Latin America.
We started with Erick Pérez, talking about safety of helicopter flights and if it is safe to fly in them:
Is it safe to travel in a helicopter?
Stringent airworthiness standards and regulations have evolved over the past decades to ensure that helicopter operations are conducted safely and in compliance with regulations.. Helicopters must be in good mechanical condition, with acceptable flight conditions and be operated by a pilot who has sufficient experience, and the mental and physical ability to deal with any unforeseen circumstances that may arise.
Many of the most common accidents occur as a result of non-essential operations at low altitudes., in which helicopters collide with various obstacles, followed by events occurring during low visibility weather conditions. There is plenty of evidence that this is partly to do with human factor skills or errors., including inherent pilot skills, air traffic controllers and also maintenance personnel.
like any aircraft, helicopters must undergo extensive checks and very strict maintenance. Flying a helicopter is very safe as long as the processes necessary to operate this type of aircraft are followed.. Therefore, Safety Road Shows are so important to Airbus, as they show the way to improve operational safety. They are directed by the Airbus Helicopters Aviation Safety Network and local aeronautical authorities participate, security supervisors, pilots, maintenance engineers and senior management of our operators.
Airbus Helicopters launched the Safety Road Shows as a cooperative effort with operators, customers, manufacturers, authorities and academia to promote aviation safety.
What pilot training parameters or technology make flying in a helicopter safe??
It is a pervasive reality that pilot and crew training and education is not keeping pace with innovation in the cockpit.. In fact, with initiatives such as the Safety Road Show that we celebrate on 17 January of this year with the Aviation Brigade of the Ecuadorian Army, we intend to start identifying hazards and managing risks to reduce risk levels on the ground and in flight. We are also establishing a method to define specific daily operational hazards, identify their potential consequences and propose corrective and protective measures to prevent or mitigate them.
Airbus also has an online training program for technicians and instructors., as well as for pilots. We also have a network of 18 training centers and 21 full flight simulators in all regions of the world, including Europe, North America, Pacific Asia, Africa, Middle East and South America.
Regarding the technology, our helicopters are equipped with advanced glass cabins, starting with the Vehicle and Engine Multifunction Display (VEMD) for the majority of the single-engine helicopter fleet and through advanced digital display systems such as the Helionix systems for the H135, H145, H160 and H175 with synthetic vision, Integrated HTAWS and additional security and system management features, including a highly advanced four-axis automatic flight control system. These systems significantly increase situational awareness and reduce pilot workload..
In the same way, from 1960, one of the most distinctive features of helicopters Airbus is the Fenestron shrouded tail rotor, which introduced a new level of safety in helicopters, both on the ground and in the air, and that is incorporated today in the H130 helicopters, H135, H145, H155 y H160. Además de proteger al personal de tierra de los peligros de un rotor giratorio tradicional y de proteger las palas del rotor dentro de su diseño de «cola de abanico», the Fenestron provides control efficiency.
What is Airbus Helicopters doing to ensure that every day its helicopters are safer to operate??
The first thing is to reiterate that safety is our highest priority and it is the axis that runs through everything we do.: from design, engineering and production to maintenance, training and assistance. We not only innovate our products to make them safer, but we also focus on the operational safety of our products, even after delivery to the customer, as a determining factor in meeting the corporate goal of zero security incidents. For instance, this Safety Road Show in Ecuador is part of the latter.
What's more, We are committed to constant innovation in the sector, incorporating the latest technological advances in safety into our helicopters. An example is the Helionix system, an advanced Airbus avionics suite that offers unrivaled pilot support in an intuitive human-machine interface, thus improving overall safety by reducing pilot workload and uniquely protecting the flight envelope. It also includes an alert system, self-monitoring functions and a vehicle monitoring screen on request, as well as the Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS). Helionix comes standard on the latest generation twin-engines H175 y H160, and in multipurpose twin-engines H145 y H135.
We are also developing an experimental onboard image processing management system for automatic approaches and landings in difficult conditions.. The system Eye for Autonomous Guidance and Landing Extension, o Eagle, feeds all of a helicopter's image processing functions into the avionics system, improving crew situational awareness and reducing pilot workload.
From the most cutting-edge aircraft design to the most advanced systems and displays, on Airbus we have developed a reputation for constant innovation whose goal is to incorporate the latest safety advances into our rotary-wing aircraft.
What does Airbus think should be developed to build more confidence in the reliability of this type of aircraft??
Airbus Helicopters works with its partners to leverage the strengths of a global network through a collaborative approach and a shared vision of security and customer expectations.
Supporting industry-wide initiatives such as the Vertical Aviation Safety Team (VAST), Airbus works with its customers to introduce safety management systems (SMS) as part of its commitment to improve flight safety around the world and reduce accidents. An SMS is an important tool to support helicopter operations through a reactive organizational approach., proactive and predictive of risks. One of its objectives is to actively promote a safety culture, using security-based decision making and risk management.
From 2009, Airbus Helicopters in Latin America has organized more than 200 Safety Road Shows to promote and reinforce the safety culture in flight and on the ground with operators, helicopter pilots and technicians, as well as authorities, universities and the industry in general in order to promote best practices in the industry and mitigate incidents. It is a Mexican initiative that has been exported to all of Latin America and the world..
Our commitment to safety is such that, in september 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Airbus Helicopters México and Airbus Helicopters Chile organized an online Safety Road Show, the first of its kind in the history of the initiative, which was attended by about 500 participants.
Regarding the region and future of these aircraft in the market, Alberto Robles tells us the following:
What is the future of rotary wing aircraft?
Our innovation model is always based on three time frames. Short term, we have more than 12,000 helicopters currently in operation, which forces us to continue proposing solutions that update and improve the fleet in service of our clients. medium term, we aim to develop new products, and in the long term, we intend to introduce the disruptive mobility solutions of the future.
The highlight for the future is sustainability, which will be the third revolution in our sector. Our aim is to be one of the leaders in this field.. Technologies such as electrification and hybridization are appearing to make helicopters safer and able to fly sustainably. In the last thirty or forty years we have cut fuel consumption in half. in the next ten, we propose to do exactly the same.
The CityAirbus Next Gen is an example of a disruptive mobility solution. With eight propellers driven by electricity, the CityAirbus will provide a quieter vehicle with no emissions to travel distances of a few 80 km at a speed of 120 km/h. Other disruptive Airbus vehicles are the Racer, a high-speed demonstrator that combines cruising speed of 400 km/h with vertical flight and will fly for the first time this year. For its part, the DisruptiveLab, which just made its first flight in January, will help us show that we can reduce CO2 emissions in a 50% thanks to a new aerodynamic architecture combined with a hybrid drive.
Finally, What growth opportunities does Airbus Helicopters see in the region??
Airbus Helicopters has been present in Latin America for more than 50 years and, through its clients in the region, has played a vital role in supporting society, offering the widest range of civil and military helicopters to cover all types of civil and government operations. We are the leading manufacturer in the region with more than 1,400 helicopters in operation, representing a third of the operational fleet in the region.
After the covid crisis, We have seen how the civil and parapublic market has been gradually recovering in 2020. 2021 It has been the year of consolidation of that recovery and in 2022 has been consolidated. In the military market, projects take a little longer to consolidate.
There are several helicopters in our range that we see a great future in Latin America. On the one hand, the high performance of the single-engine H125 at high altitudes with high temperatures, coupled with its versatility, make the H125 a helicopter perfectly adapted to the needs of the most demanding operators in the region. Thanks to its flat floor cab, this helicopter can be quickly and easily reconfigured for all types of missions. Other advantages of the H125 are its low maintenance cost, its increased maneuverability and reduced pilot workload, especially in extreme environments. we have close to 850 single-turbine helicopters already flying in the region, almost all H125.
The H145 twin-engine has also proven to be a helicopter perfectly adapted to the high altitude and heat conditions typical of some regions of Latin America.. In fact, It is the only twin engine that has managed to settle on the top of Aconcagua. The H145 would make it possible to expand the multipurpose capabilities of the Armed Forces of several Latin American countries, because with a single platform it allows security forces to carry out a wide range of missions, from SAR (Search and Rescue), EMS (Emergency Medical Service) or passenger transport, even missions of a more military profile with weapons. The success of the six H145 flying in the Ecuadorian Air Force, known as Cobra, are a clear example of versatility since they entered service in May 2021. They have already reached more than 2,000 flight hours carrying out missions to support the population and security.
In the medium helicopter segment, both the H160 and the H175 are options that adapt to operational needs of greater load and longer distances. The H160 (already operating in Latin America) can transport to 12 passengers offering truly extraordinary safety and comfort standards. For its part, the H175, which already operates Pegaso in the Gulf of Mexico and OMNI in Brazil for the energy segment, can carry up to 16 passengers with a radius of action of 160 NM. Military versions of both helicopters, the H160M and the H175M, They are a modern and efficient option for Armed Forces looking for modular and versatile platforms to cover the full range of military missions with a single helicopter..
If we talk about heavy helicopters, we see many options in Latin America for the model Super Cougar H215. Versatile and adapted to the most demanding environments, the H215 is already used in Bolivia flying at more than 13,000 feet for example, and lately we have also seen him fighting fire in Chile. The H215 can carry up to 20 firemen, or load for example up to 3,500 liters of water in a bambi bucket.
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