Eurocopter Unveils the EC145T2

Eurocopter, March 06, 2011 - Today at Heli-Expo, Eurocopter performed a dazzling unveiling ceremony on its booth in honor of the newest addition to its family – an evolved version of the popular twin-engine EC145.

In front of a crowd of some 1,000 spectators, Eurocopter displayed spectacular footage of its current product range on a massive screen before raising the curtain to reveal the EC145 T2.

The machine, a scale one mock-up, slowly rolled out towards the crowd, with Eurocopter Group’s President & CEO Lutz Bertling inside the cockpit.

Once outside of the aircraft, Bertling welcomed the spectators and highlighted the evolutions of the aircraft. These evolutions include the company’s Fenestron, new Arriel 2E engines, upgraded main and tail rotor gear boxes and a new modular avionics suite, among others. He thanked the representatives of three EC145 T2 launching customers present at the event: José Caparroz Martinez, the Industrial Managing Director of INAER; Mike Stanberry, the President of the US operator Metro Aviation Inc; and Rod Lewis, the President & CEO of Lewis Energy Group.

With deliveries to begin in 2012, the EC145 T2 will offer significantly improved performance, increased safety, enhanced human-machine interface, improved maintainability and lower operating costs. It benefits from the heritage of Eurocopter’s EC145 and its BK117 predecessor, which together have logged more than 2.8 million flight hours in service around the world.