The Airbus Helicopters X6 is a design concept for a 19-seat twin-engined

heavy lift In transportation, heavy lift refers to the handling and installation of heavy items which are indivisible, and of weights generally accepted to be over 100 tons and of widths/heights of more than 100 meters. These oversized items are transported ...

helicopter to replace the

Airbus Helicopters H225 The Airbus Helicopters H225 (previously Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma) is a long-range passenger transport helicopter developed by Eurocopter as the next generation of the civilian Super Puma family. It is a twin-engined aircraft and can carry up ...

. Development was stopped in early 2018.

Development

In June 2015, Airbus Helicopters announced the start of a two-year concept development phase including a customer advisory panel: it will be targeted at the commercial transport market, the oil and gas industry work and for search and rescue work, aiming for entry into service around 2022-23. In June 2017, the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

approved €377 million ($420 million) of repayable

state aid State aid in the European Union is the name given to a subsidy or any other aid provided by a government that distorts competitions. Under European Union competition law the term has a legal meaning, being any measure that demonstrates any of the ...

, due to be paid back over eight years : €330 million from France and €47.25 million from Germany. It would be the first Airbus commercial helicopter controlled by

fly-by-wire Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a system that replaces the conventional manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic signals transmitted by wires, and flight control co ...

and should offer lower noise and a 15-20% reductions in fuel burn and direct operating costs compared to current aircraft. The

Safran Aneto The Rolls-Royce Turbomeca RTM322 is a turboshaft engine produced by Safran Helicopter Engines. It was originally conceived and manufactured by Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Limited, a joint venture between Rolls-Royce plc and Turbomeca (now Safran H ...

was proposed to power the 11 t class helicopter. In January 2018, its development was suspended as it is lacking disruptive fly-by-wire and engine suppliers, and while the military and parapublic H225 market stayed strong in 2017 with 44 orders, the

offshore oil and gas Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the te ...

market shrank; the €377 million French and German refundable launch aid is not yet allocated but could be used if the X6 is launched. The offshore oil and gas market continued to shrink with the North Sea oilfield, its primary market, continuing to be depleted and the oil price presently too low to finance new operations.

Development

See also

References

Further reading