Bluecopter takes to the skies

Airbus Helicopters Bluecopter (Credit: Charles Abarr)

Airbus Helicopters has unveiled a quieter and more fuel efficient rotorcraft, its Bluecopter demonstrator, which has leading-edge technologies ranging from an advanced Fenestron, improved rotor and airframe design to intelligent engine power management.

Using one of the company’s light medium twin-engine rotorcraft as the demonstrator platform, Bluecopter incorporates transversal technologies that can be applied across Airbus Helicopters’ product line. The aircraft made its public debut during a presentation at Airbus Helicopters’ Donauwörth, Germany facility.

“By bringing together the best of our company’s innovation, we are opening the way for a new generation of rotorcraft that will have lower noise levels, burn less fuel and are more efficient to operate.”

Marius Bebesel, program manager Research & Innovation in charge of the Bluecopter demonstrator says: “By bringing together the best of our company’s innovation, we are opening the way for a new generation of rotorcraft that will have lower noise levels, burn less fuel and are more efficient to operate. With Bluecopter, we have met our goals of decreasing fuel consumption by as much as 40 percent, significantly reducing CO2 emissions, and lowering noise to approximately 10 decibel effective perceived noise (EPNdB) below ICAO noise certification limits, while raising the maximum payload and the passenger comfort.”

The company has further developed Fenestron on Bluecopter achieving additional performance improvements and has also reduced the noise footprint further.

The demonstrator features several measures to reduce aircraft aerodynamic drag, including fairings for the main rotor hub and the landing skids, a newly developed aft-body concept and the use of a specially-designed empennage with a T-tail horizontal stabilizer.

Airbus Helicopters released a short video: