Is there a new Airbus helicopter model, waiting in the wings?
March 11, 2025
This was a case of bolting the stable door well after the horse had fled. YouTube user ‘Matze’ posted video of the aircraft (which he called the H135 T4) on 7 February, 2025, and identified it as D-HEEY.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTHqgh0pUhY&t=1s
The Les Echoes piece was accompanied by a starboard side photograph (or conceivably a CGI render), which showed what looked like a developed H135, though it was clearly marked ‘H140’ on the tailfin. No registration was visible, but the aircraft was fully painted. It is unclear as to whether the aircraft depicted has flown, but our guess would be that it may have done so, perhaps with its registration carried on a board in the cabin door window, as was the case for early flights by the H130 Flightlab (F-WWXD). It may be the same aircraft as shown in the YouTube video (though this was white overall), or a sistership.
This ‘H140’ does look like an H135, but with a T-tail atop a more highly swept ‘fin’, plus a five blade main rotor (which is likely to give improved performace and a smoother ride), revised jet pipes, revised rear clamshell doors and a more ‘bluff’ nose profile.
The T-tail has downturned tips and gives a pleasantly ‘old school’ appearance, particularly compared to the box-like ‘biplane’ stabilisor of the H160. It allows the tailplane/horizontal stabilisor to be carried further aft than would be possible by mounting it on the tailboom, forward of the fenestron. It is far less radical than the new compound and tail rotor-free configurations shown in patent applications uncovered by FlightGlobal’s rotary wing sleuth, Dominic Perry. Interestingly, many helicopters with a Fenestron have used T-tails, including the Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66, and the Kamov Ka-60 and Ka-62.
The new five-bladed main rotor bears a passing resemblance to that fitted to the H145 D-3 and UH-72. This was, in turn, derived from the original main rotor system of the H135, scaled up, with an additional blade.
A five-blade main rotor potentially offers a number of advantages, primarily offering significantly reduced vibration due to a more even distribution of lift. The use of an ‘odd number’ of blades my confer additional advantages. Multi bladed rotors certainly give a lower blade loading, with each additional blade reducing the load on the other. This can be used to give increased payload, performance or manoeuvrability, and a smaller rotor diameter. A five-blade rotor will tend to be quieter, and potentially gives better fuel efficiency compared to a rotor with a smaller number of blades.
The use of a new designation is, on the face of it, surprising, for what is recognisably an H135 derivative. The EC145/H145 has retained the same numerical suffix throughout a series of upgrades and modernisations, first a major fuselage redesign (EC145 C2), then the addition of new Arriel 2E turboshaft engines, dual-digital FADEC, a Fenestron shrouded tail rotor, and upgraded tail and main rotor gear boxes (EC145 T2/H145 D-2) and finally the addition of a five bladed main rotor (H145 D-3).
The timing of the new helicopter is also surprising, given the plans to develop and test new technologies for light twins using the so-called PioneerLab testbed. These will not be ready in time for the H140.
Airbus Helicopters has enjoyed greater success with some of its smaller aircraft, with the H125 clocking up 155 orders in 2024, and the H130 47. Of the company’s twin engine types, the H145 accounted for 114, and the H135 59. The larger H160 scored just four orders, and the H175 18.
