EUROCOPTER GERMANY has started assembly of a highly modified BK117, to meet the time-scale requirements at one of the bidders for the UK Ministry of Defence's (MoD) £400 million ($610 million) tri-service Defence Helicopter Flying School (DFHS) competition.
The winner is to be announced in June, with the DFHS due to begin operations in April 1997. Hunting and Bond, Shorts and Flight Refueling Aviation, Bristow and Serco are the contenders.
Hunting and Bond have already assembled a full-scale cabin mock-up of the modified BK117, known as the 117C-C1, which is aimed at convincing the MoD that using this aircraft to meet its twin-engined-helicopter requirement is acceptable.
The DFHS requirement calls for 35 single- and nine twin-engined helicopters to be available at any one time for the DFHS, which is to be sited at Royal Air Force Shawbury. Hunting and Bond are offering the Eurocopter AS350BA to meet the single-engine requirement. The other two teams are believed to be offering the Bell 206 in the single-engine role, with the Bell 412 as the twin-engined competitor.
Source: Flight International
