BLR Aerospace (Booth C2150) announced the completion of the first factory installation of an Airbus Helicopters BLR FastFin system on an Airbus H125. Twenty-five Airbus Helicopters Customer Centers worldwide have been authorized to sell and install FastFin. The first so-equipped helicopter is expected to be delivered in June to Heli-Austria, which is a long-time user of the BLR FastFin on its H125s and Bell Helicopter medium helicopters, all of which had retrofit installations.
“The H125 systems we are already flying with are operating well,” said Heli-Austria president Roy Kraus. “FastFin is beneficial in all regimes, but we consider it essential for high-altitude operations.” Heli-Austria helicopters routinely operate between 7,000 feet and 10,000 feet, but sometimes reach altitudes of 13,000 feet, performing logging, construction and other vertical-reference work.
BLR's FastFin System uses advanced airflow management to increase the effectiveness of a helicopter’s anti-torque system. This facilitates increases in useful load and aircraft stability, especially in high-and-hot conditions. For the H125, this can mean an increase of useful load up to 120 pounds and a 10-percent improvement in tail-rotor pedal margins.
Said Axel Aloccio, the H125/130 program head at Airbus Helicopters, “We are excited to work with BLR to offer our H125 customers worldwide the FastFin system for both factory and retrofit. The Fastfin system enhances the H125 performance in hot-and-high conditions and further reinforces the superiority of the H125 in the single-engine helicopter market.”