‘Tech is under pressure to make helicopters silent’

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for a defence mission’s success is the readiness of the helicopter at any moment. As such, all technological aspects pertaining to this goal, keeping simplicity of the design together with high performance and easy maintenance is a must, especially while operating in harsh conditions.

The good compromise between sophisticated equipment, lightweight, easy operations and smooth take off and landing performances have to be found. It is imperative that one invests in technologies that give an excellent and reliable modern helicopter, always available for flights, instead of a flying an electronic gadget which will appear to be too fragile when exposed to severe operational conditions.

What measures have you taken to establish Eurocopter’s presence in the Indian market?

The DGCA has declared this year as the year of helicopters. So we are hopeful of getting a lot of orders in civil, as well as military areas. We are engaged in meetings with the government and are hopeful that at the state level, we could get some orders by the state governments for their internal security.

Our relationship with India is more than 40 years. Eurocopter is strong both in civil and the military market . We have the widest range of helicopters in the world. We understand the pulse of the Indian market and attempts are being made to offer the best not only in cost, but also in terms of technology, including maintenance and reliability. Perhaps, that’s what the vendors are expected to give.

And the new technologies being brought in…

Eurocopter’s history in the rotary wings industry has always been associated with world records in terms of performance of our helicopters. These performances are directly related to the highly innovative design of our helicopters. Our endeavour has been to lead the way in new technologies and in R&D.

For the first time, we are getting the de-icing system. In flight, icing conditions are the only real weather limits for the helicopter flight.

When low temperature combines with high air humidity, ice will naturally form in the atmosphere.

The ice crystals have an ability to grab all parts of the helicopter, especially the rotor blades. Accumulation of ice during the flight makes the helicopter to become quickly much more heavy and unable to sustain levelled flight. The helicopter will face a forced landing situation or even collide under such circumstances.