Airbus Helicopters H175

In February 2005, Eurocopter president Fabrice Brégier revealed that in-depth discussions were being held between Eurocopter and China Aviation Industry Corporation II (AVIC II) on the topic of the co-development of a new medium-heavy twin-engine helicopter, tentatively designated as the EC175. In October 2005, AgustaWestland acknowledged that it had also been approached by AVIC II, and that the firm was interested in participating if Eurocopter failed to secure the co-development contract. On 5 December 2005, the signing of a development contract for the EC175 was announced by Eurocopter and AVIC-II's subsidiary Harbin Aircraft Industry Group (HAIG). Early development work on the project proceeded as per schedule: On 5 December 2006, the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) was completed; the Critical Design Review (CDR) was completed on 5 December 2007, at which point the design of the aircraft and all its sub-systems was frozen. In 2008, it was expected that development of the EC175 would cost €600 million. The EC175 was developed through close cooperation with existing operators via a customer advisory team (CAT) approach. During the EC175's formal unveiling at Heli-Expo 2008, Eurocopter booked a total of 111 purchase options from 13 customers, including launch customers Bristow Helicopters and the VIH Aviation Group. During the Zhuhai Airshow in November 2008, a letter of intent for 5 Z-15s was signed between HAIG and Chinese domestic general-purpose aviation company Longken General Aviation Cooperation. As defined in 2008, the commercial marketing of the EC175 as follows: HAIG is responsible for selling the type within China and neighboring nations, Airbus Helicopters is responsible for sales to the rest of the world. On 4 December 2009, the EC175 prototype made its unofficial first flight; the official maiden flight of the prototype was on 17 December 2009 in Marignane, France. A two-year delivery delay was encountered, partly due to certification issues with the rotorcraft's Helinix avionics suite. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) were originally expected to issue type certification for the EC175 sometime in 2013; this was formally received in January 2014. In September 2015, Avicopter publicly revealed their first AC352 prototype. In December 2015, flight tests of the Turbomeca Ardiden 3C/WZ16 powerplant were performed using an H175 prototype. An initial assembly line for the EC175 was established at Airbus Helicopters' Marignane facility; in 2008, it was reported that a second assembly line for the type was intended to follow within five years. In April 2014, an agreement between Airbus Helicopters and Avicopter was made for the production of 1,000 EC175; lasting for 20 years, manufacturing is split half-and-half between separate assembly lines operated by the two firms. As of June 2014, the EC175 had the distinction of holding both the 3 km and 6 km time-to-climb records for its class, ratified by FAI, at about a minute per kilometre. In May 2015, a H175 was used as a demonstrator for Airbus Helicopter's low-noise helicopter instrument approach project, a world-first achieved via satellite-augmented navigation to optimize rotor-craft noise levels. By May 2015, the H175 had been certified for single-pilot operations under visual flight rules (VFR); Airbus Helicopters is studying single-pilot operations under instrument flight rules, but this is not considered to be a priority due to low demand for this functionality. ==Design==