Airbus Racer speeds past its goal
July 23, 2024
Airbus Racer, a high-speed helicopter demonstrator, has reached its fast cruise speed target of 407 km/h. On 21 June, less than two months after its first flight, the Racer exceeded its level speed objective of 407 km/h by reaching 420 km/h. In about nine hours of flight testing and seven flights, almost all of the flight envelope has been explored.
The Racer was developed in the frame of the European Research Clean Sky 2 project and aims to achieve the best trade-off between speed, cost-efficiency and mission performance. With aerodynamic optimisation and an eco-mode propulsion system, the Race targets a fuel consumption reduction of about 20% compared to similar, current generation helicopters.
The hybrid electric eco-mode, developed with Safran Helicopter Engines, allows one of the two Aneto-1X engineers to be paused in cruise flight, thus minimising emissions. The Racer also boasts unique architecture that can lower its operational acoustic footprint.
“This achievement in such a short space of time is really a testimony to the hard work of our 40 partners in 13 European countries to bring all of this innovation to flight,” Bruno Even, CEO of Airbus Helicopters. “We are all looking forward to the next phase of flight testing.” This stage will focus on single engine operations and finalise the flight envelope.
The flight test crew consisted of Hervé Jammayrac (Chief Flight Test Pilot), Dominique Fournier (Flight Test Engineer), and Christophe Skorlic (Test Flight Engineer).
