Norwegian Air Ambulance has ordered two
five-bladed Airbus H145 helicopters to be used for life-saving missions in Norway.
The new version of Airbus’ best-selling H145 light
twin-engine helicopter adds a five-bladed rotor to
the multi-mission aircraft, increasing the useful load of the
helicopter by 150kg (330 lbs).
The simplicity of the new bearingless main rotor design also eases maintenance operations,
further improving the benchmark serviceability and reliability of
the H145, while improving ride comfort for both passengers and
crew.
“I would like to thank the Norwegian Air Ambulance
for its continued trust in our helicopters to support their
essential, life-saving missions,” said Thomas Hein, Head of Europe
Region at Airbus Helicopters. “We’re proud that they are further
expanding their fleet of five-bladed H145s.”
Today, Norwegian Air Ambulance operates all 13
HEMS bases in Norway using a 100% Helionix-equipped fleet of H135s
and H145s.
The organisation’s mother company, the Norwegian Air
Ambulance Foundation, was the first operator in the world to take
delivery of a five-bladed H145 in 2020.
“The five-bladed H145 has proven to be the perfect
helicopter for our HEMS operations,” said Leif Olstad, CEO of the
Norwegian Air Ambulance. “With the new helicopters we will
continue to serve the people of Norway with state of the art
equipment to ensure the best service possible.”
In total, there are more than 1,600 H145 family
helicopters in service, logging a total of more than seven million
flight hours.
Powered by two Safran Arriel 2E engines, the H145 is
equipped with full authority digital engine control (FADEC) and
the Helionix digital avionics suite.
It includes a high
performance 4-axis autopilot, increasing safety and reducing pilot
workload, and its particularly low acoustic footprint makes the H145
one of the quietest helicopters in its class, while its CO2 emissions are
also amongst the lowest.
