The H215 is set to depart on a demonstration tour of the U.S. following its appearance at Heli-Expo. Airbus Helicopters Photo
The return of the Airbus Helicopters H215 to HAI Heli-Expo this year marks the beginning of a new effort from the manufacturer to make an impact with the utility variant of its Super Puma family in the North American market — and particularly within the firefighting sector.
The H215, previously known as the AS332 C1e/L1e (it was in the form of a C1e that it appeared at Heli-Expo 2014 in Anaheim, Calif.), is set to depart on a demonstration tour of the U.S. following its appearance at Heli-Expo in Louisville, Ky., targeting potential State Department and firefighting agency contracts around the country.
After the show, the H215 will head to Huntsville, Ala., where it will provide demonstrations for the U.S. Army, before moving on to Washington, D.C., and then crossing the country to California, where it will appear in Los Angeles and Sacramento.
Powered by two Turbomeca Makila 1A1 engines. and containing the same four-axis autopilot found in the H225, the H215 is offered in two basic versions — “multirole” (long frame) and “aerial work” (short frame). The multirole version, which is targeted at parapublic and transport missions, can be configured with a 19-seat or 22-seat installation, while the aerial work version offers an increased payload and can carry up to 4.5 tonnes (9,920 pounds) in a cargo sling.
“The 215 has huge potential . . . in emerging countries or even in mature markets for which there is a big replacement need,” said Fabrice Arfi, vice president of business development at Airbus Helicopters, during a media briefing ahead of Heli-Expo. “We will go after the replacement of the thousands of [Mil] Mi-8s and Mi-17s in the world, but also the [Sikorsky] S-61s, and we believe that we now have everything it takes to grasp this market.”
In the U.S., this effort will be largely focused on promoting the H215’s suitability for the firefighting role — in particular with CAL FIRE, which has a tender out for 15 aircraft to replace its fleet of Bell UH-1H Super Hueys.
Following the demo tour in the U.S., the H215 will travel down to Latin America, where the company sees huge potential for the aircraft, thanks in large part to its performance in hot and high environments. Another region in which Airbus Helicopters will focus its H215 marketing efforts is among the former Soviet bloc countries in central Asia (where Uzbekistan is already a customer).
Airbus Helicopters is marketing the H215 as a cost efficient and cost competitive aircraft (the goal is to be competitive with a new Mi-171, with an acquisition cost of about 14 to 15 million euros in a basic configuration), and to help achieve that, it is building a brand new assembly line for the aircraft in Brasov, Romania (due to be completed by the end of this year). “We pride ourselves in having selected Romania as its production environment, because we believe this is the only way we can reach our very ambitious cost targets,” said Arfi.
The manufacturer has invested over 50 million euros in the facility, and hopes to build all civil H215s in Romania (rather than in Marignane, France, where they are currently assembled) by 2018. At that point, it wants to be producing 15 H215s each year. In 2015, the company sold seven aircraft, but it is aiming to increase that to 12 aircraft in 2016.
“We will be very active in 2016, [and] we have very high ambitions for 2016 in this aircraft,” said Arfi.
