Enstrom Helicopter’s new TH180 piston-powered helicopter suffered an incident during flight testing on February 12 at the company’s Menominee, Mich. headquarters. According to Enstrom, the helicopter “experienced an emergency hard-landing in Menominee shortly before noon…There were no injuries or casualties and the pilot walked away from the helicopter. Enstrom personnel were on site shortly after the incident to assist with the clearing of the helicopter to begin an investigation of the incident.”
Before the incident, Enstrom had been flight-testing the TH180 in preparation for certification later this year or early 2017. Enstrom announced the helicopter at Heli-Expo 2014, and since then has taken a number of signed MOUs for the new helicopter, which is designed for the flight training, light commercial and private owner markets.
“We’ve completed the preliminary envelope expansion testing, and are in the process of evaluating the aircraft with different pilots of different skills levels to ensure the TH180 meets the needs of all our customers” said Enstrom test pilot Bill Taylor. “We’ve had it out over 100 knots so far, and everything is performing as expected.”
Enstrom is building a third test helicopter that will be a fully conforming prototype. That aircraft will be added to the flight-test fleet later this year.
The new helicopter is powered by the 210-hp HIO-390 engine from Lycoming and is a scaled-down version of the company’s popular280FX three-seat model. The TH180 adapts the 280FX’s type certificate and rotor system, moves that should simplify the certification process.
Compared with the 280FX, the TH180 has more robust landing gear and weighs 500 pounds less, about 2,250 pounds maximum gross weight. The TH180 features a GS Engineering engine governor and an electric clutch switch, and the governor can be activated or overridden at the pilot’s discretion.
The TH180’s fuel capacity is 40 gallons, and the helicopter’s useful load should be around 700 pounds. Company officials said the TH180 should post direct operating costs of $175 per hour and an hourly fuel burn of less than 12 gph.
Enstrom’s expanded and remodeled production plant in Menominee, Mich., has the capacity to build 100 TH180s per year. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of China’s Chongqing General Aviation Group.