Airbus Helicopters has delivered the final EC145e to US emergency medical services (EMS) specialist Metro Aviation – marking the end of production for the niche variant of the manufacturer’s light-twin.
Retaining the open tail rotor and other features of pre-H145 variants, the EC145e was envisaged as a stripped down version designed for EMS operations, Airbus Helicopters launched the model at the Heli-Expo show in 2015 with an order for six units from Metro.
Shreveport, Louisiana-based Metro went on to order a total of 43 examples of the helicopter, all built at the airframer’s US plant in Columbus, Mississippi.
In fact, Metro took the basic visual flight rules-approved aircraft and, working with Genesys Aerosystems, developed an instrument flight rules-qualified helicopter, which includes the avionics firm’s HeliSAS two-axis autopilot.
Detailing the delivery in a post on LinkedIn, Johannes Dienemann, vice-president industry and civil programmes at Airbus Helicopters Inc, writes: “Though today marked the end of one chapter, we look forward to continuing to support our partners through the lifecycle of this aircraft and the many other Airbus helicopters in their fleet.”
Airbus Helicopters continues to build the H145 – now in its latest five-bladed D3 guise – and recently announced that to cope with booming demand it would transfer some production from the type’s current assembly line in Donauworth, Germany to Columbus.
