Airbus Helicopters has delivered a first H135 light-twin rotorcraft to the Spanish air force, for use as an advanced training asset.
Handed over at the airframer’s Albacete final assembly site in early May, some six months ahead of schedule, the H135 is the first of 11 on order for the service.
The incoming fleet will be assigned to the 78th Wing at the Military Helicopter School in Armilla.
“We are confident that the H135 will represent a leap in the quality of teaching and will reinforce the Military Helicopter School as the benchmark it is throughout the world,” says Fernando Lombo, managing director of Airbus Helicopters Spain.
“This is the eighth [H135] helicopter delivered under the 36-unit contract signed at the end of 2021 to supply the armed forces and state security forces,” the airframer says.
Meanwhile, a first of seven H135 trainers ordered for the Spanish navy under the same award will be handed “in the coming months”, Airbus Helicopters says. It separately has previously supplied a dozen of the model for use by the Spanish army’s ACAVIET training unit.
“We are very proud to know that all young pilots from the Ministry of Defence corps will now be trained on the H135,” Lombo says.
