The H175 twins

Airbus Helicopters’ new-generation seven-tonne class H175 is selling well after entering service in December last year. But the European manufacturer has even higher hopes for its twin, a Chinese-built version currently heading towards certification in Tianjin, the port city south-east of Beijing. TOM BALLANTYNE reports.

Laurence Barron, China chairman of European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, is more than happy with the penetration the company has achieved in China on the commercial passenger jet front but he’s even more excited about the potential for a bonanza in helicopter sales.

“At the moment the market is very small here,” he said in a telephone interview from Beijing. “We at Airbus have 40 per cent of the inservice (helicopter) fleet here and there are six competitors. The next one has 20 per cent. So we are the market leader for the civil helicopter market here but it’s a very small number of machines. It’s less than 400 turbine helicopters in the whole country. ” It won’t stay like that for long, he predicts. “Clearly the future is for the helicopter business because they need helicopters in almost every area you can think of. Today that market is very small but we think it is going to grow very fast and we want to basically see the same success as we’ve had with aircraft and we want to maintain our leading market position with the helicopter business. ” Spearheading that drive is a unique joint development program that will see Airbus Helicopters’ newest product, the H175 (previously known as the EC175), joined in the market by a Chinese-built version, the Z352 (formerly the AC352) being built by Avicopter, the helicopter division of China Aviation Industries (AVIC) at its plant in Tianjin, close to where Airbus already has an A320 final assembly line.