Pegasus Design has won Airbus Helicopters’ design contest for the H160 VIP cabin interior, the airframer announced here on Tuesday. At the Airbus Helicopters display (Hall 5, Booth N060), showgoers can experience the medium twin’s cabin interior, electric footstep and hinged doors, thanks to a virtual reality immersion tool.
The contest was launched in October 2015. It culminated in an evaluation by “a large panel of customers and specialists in luxury goods,” said Frédéric Lemos, Airbus Helicopters’ head of private and business aviation. Airbus’s in-house design team will now work closely with Pegasus Design, following the latter’s “design intention.” It will not be the first cooperation between the two companies, as Pegasus was previously selected to design the H175’s VIP and corporate cabin interiors.
The H160 test program has been progressing as planned, according to Airbus Helicopters, which targets EASA certification in 2018. The two prototypes (PT1 and PT2) have accumulated around 140 flight hours in 100 sorties. A third will join the fleet next year. Also taking part to the effort are two advanced ground test beds–Dynamic Helicopter Zero and System Helicopter Zero.
PT1, which first flew in June 2015 with Pratt & Whitney Canada engines, has been modified with Turbomeca Arranos and will be back flying this month. Meanwhile PT2 has been flying since January, powered by Arranos.
“This has been a very promising beginning with the Turbomeca engines, which are maturing,” Bernard Fujarski, head of the H160 program, told AIN. The aero-mechanic configuration of the rotorcraft has been “progressing rapidly,” he added. Night flight trials have begun.
The flight envelope has been “widely open,” Fujarski said. PT2 has flown several times at 20,000 feet. It has performed turns at 2.2 g. It also recently flew a planned test flight at greater than Vne speed. “We are totally on target,” Fujarski said.
Coming up are Arrano performance flights and cold- and hot-temperature tests. The aero-mechanic configuration is to be finalized soon.
Airbus opened the H160 order book at the U.S. Heli-Expo show in Louisville, Kentucky earlier this year, and has since signed some letters of intent.