Metro Aviation sells first EC145 e-lite

Airbus Helicopters EC145e e-lite

Metro Aviation has committed to buy six EC145e e-lite helicopters. The EC145 e-lite is the utility variant developed to provide greater useful load by reducing or simplifying some of the onboard systems. In this version the normal helicopter’s heavier components removed to reduce weight and increase effective payload.

The company has now sold the first of these to Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta, and is set to carry out completion work including air conditioning, HeliSAS and specialty pediatric care equipment. The company will also introduce an early market introduction offer for the other five aircraft with $10,000 cash back.

The EC145e has the same 7,903 pound maximum take-off weight of the standard EC145, but the useful load of the single-pilot VFR aircraft is up to 300 pounds greater. This has been achieved through removal of such items as the automatic flight control system and the replacement of conventional cockpit instruments by Garmin’s G500H avionics suite with dual electronic flight displays.