Paris Le Bourget airshow Day Two

The big thing of the day was that Agusta Westland have bought Bell out of the AW609, and will now have 100% ownership of the civilian model. Bell, however, retain the rites to the V-22 Osprey, the military model. Intellectual property looks to be retained by Bell, so it may be this is some kind of licence effect.
Work on this division of the ownership and continuing development rites of the 609 has been going on for over a year, and has now been satisfactorially resolved. AW wants it, Bell does not...

As a leaving present the AW CEO gave John Garrison - Bell CEO a 609 in the Finmeccanica colours. Could that have been painful for JG?

Paris Le Bourget 2011 afternoon

Ah, got a picture of the HAD1-T - looks like it will be an interesting machine and a competitor to the R22. Mind you if The Robinson Company decide not to keep building the R22, it could become the French R22 and have as its main competitor the Cabri G2. That would be interesting, suddenly putting the emphasis away from the USA and onto France.

Paris Le Bourget Airshow 2011 - in the clouds

The Eurocopter X3 doing a display at Le Bourget

Even though it was raining off and on most of the day, they managed to get the air displays done and this was the best of the lot. The Eurocopter X3 doing its thing - lots of fun.

It is a helicopter but one that displays well. Mind you, as we all know, French display pilots are chosen because they are even madder than 'normal' French pilots!! Before I get something horrible in my onion soup it was a joke... really...

X3

Paris Le Bourget 2011, Day One

Tantalising us with windy covers - what is beneath?

Interesting day at Paris airshow: The day started with rain, more rain and rain. Luckily most of the events were able to take place between heavy showers or indoors!
Most important events were the unveiling of the AW189 prototype - which is an 8 tonne class helicopter due to be a larger version of the AW139 and, as Agusta no doubt hope, as successful.
The other big thing of the day was the flight (several between and dodging showers) of the Eurocotper X3 - it was a pretty meaty show with some severe movements both in climb and diving at the ground. Well worth watching, and (I thought) more interesting that the French fighter that followed it.
There were also a myriad of interesting little things at the show : one great surprise was that the HAD1-T the French turbine, 2 seat helicopter trainer was indeed up and running as a prototype. That is pretty quick going for the company, as it was first given a public mention at Helitech last year, when it was just a twinkle in the Alsace Lorraine company's eye!

Here it is: the AW189 - an 8 tonne helicopter

AeroExpo Sywell 2011 Day One Part Two

The Gyrocopter Experience tent

Calidus in front of the Magni experience

Gyrocopters are very much the progressive thing here - with lectures, promotions and suggestions that it is not so difficult to train up as a gyrocopter instructor - nor so expensive. Even given that they are starting from a low stand-point (do you know there are NO female gyrocopter instructors in the UK) with this level of enthusiasm they should soon be increasing their numbers...
Impressively, there are three companies working together on the gyrocopter experience - clearly they think it is more important to get the message out - gyrocopters are fun and cost effective - than to compete with each other.
Good news...

AeroExpo Sywell 2011 Day One

Air Ambulance from Sloane Helicopters

Day One at Aero Expo has started out a bit blowy, although not wet (yet). There is an interesting array of aircraft here though only five helicopters... However, we are promised both a Chinook display (that is a good one - I saw it last year) and a display in the R66, which should be interesting.
Gyrocopters are here - Magni has a booth and I saw a Calidus... i don't think they are doing any displays though.
More later - the wifi here is very slow.

European Business Aviation show in Geneva

EC145 Mercedes Benz style

The 2010 EBACE laid the path for the 2011 show as far as helicopters were concerned; the major event of the show being the full sized Mercedes Benz EC145 helicopter which was trailered last year. Last year we had the model and the 'painted dreams' but this year we had the real thing. Not only that but Eurocopter had already sold the first one and were displaying it next to a gull-wing Mercedes.
However, the handing over ceremony was a real damp squid - the buyer was given a document to sign without any fuss and a couple of people drank champagne ... not a learning experience or even good photos.
Other good things at EBACE were more in the jet line than in helicopters, although Lees Avionics had some news - their Part 145 design works has been growing to include some other types and they have recently been working on 2 Bell 412s which are going out to the Faro Islands to do SAR.
Lunch was good and being an aviation journalist even getting lunch was a bit of a surprise and worth going for - oh dear, probably a journalist in the car world would be shocked at such modesty!