Heli-Air Design’s Helineo ultralight helicopter completed its first flight at Metz Nancy Lorraine airport, in north-east France, on 26 April. Under the control of test-pilot Stéphane Lignier, the three-blade turbine-engined two-seater made fifteen take-offs and a series of hover-taxy manoeuvres inside ground effect.

According to HAD’s Jean Fiaud, the flight demonstrated that the helicopter complies with earlier technical forecasts. “We will now conduct flight trials leading, we anticipate, to DGAC certification within twelve months”. HAD will also build two further pre-production aircraft and implement the industrial resources for series production.

Video here

Andy Healey – AH Ink

and this is how they showed it at Helitech 2011 – a HeliHub.com photo