The Auroa Helicopters Auroa is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

designed and produced by Auroa Helicopters Limited of

Manaia, Taranaki Manaia is a rural town in South Taranaki District, New Zealand. Ōpunake is 29 km to the northwest, and Hāwera is 13 km to the southeast. Kaponga is 15 km north. State Highway 45 passes through the town. Manaia is named after ...

, introduced in 2013. The aircraft is supplied complete and ready-to-fly.Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', page 204. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015.

Design and development

The Auroa was designed to comply with the New Zealand and European Class 6 microlight helicopter rules. It features a single main rotor and tail rotor, a two-seats-in

side-by-side configuration Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

enclosed cockpit with a windshield, skid landing gear and a

Solar T62 The Solar T62 Titan is an American gas turbine engine used mainly as a helicopter auxiliary power unit (APU), ground power generator, turboprop engine or helicopter turboshaft engine. A free power turbine version was developed as the Solar T66. ...

turbine engine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directi ...

. The aircraft

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraf ...

is made from a combination of metal tubing and composites. Its two-bladed rotor has a diameter of . The tail rotor has four blades and a protective ring. The aircraft has a typical empty weight of and a gross weight of ( for the microlight class), giving a useful load of ( for the microlight class). Reviewer Werner Pfaendler, describes the design as "elegant". First flown in 2011, the three prototypes accumulated 130 flying hours by the end of that year.

Specifications (Auroa)

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.auroahelicopters.co.nz/
Animation tour of the Auroa
Auroa 2010s New Zealand sport aircraft 2010s New Zealand ultralight aircraft 2010s New Zealand civil utility aircraft 2010s New Zealand helicopters Aircraft first flown in 2011 Single-turbine helicopters

Design and development

Specifications (Auroa)

See also

References

External links