Airbus Helicopters has delivered the first five-bladed H145 to be used in the offshore wind segment to its long-term customer HTM Helicopters. The aircraft will be operated from one of HTM’s bases at Norden-Norddeich, Emden, Borkum and Helgoland. For its missions, which include passenger transport to and from wind farms and hoisting technicians to the wind-turbines, the helicopter is equipped with a powerful hoist, floatation equipment, and a cargo hook.

“We already operate one four-bladed H145 in the offshore wind segment which has proven to be the perfect fit for our operations in often challenging environments,” says Bernd Brucherseifer, Pilot and Managing Director at HTM Helicopters. “The increased useful load, the smoother ride on board and the excellent OEI performance of the five-bladed version will help us to further enhance our mission capabilities.”

“We’d like to thank HTM Helicopters for its continued trust in our helicopters and especially in the H145,” says Axel Humpert, Head of the H145 Programme. “We’re proud that our helicopters are used to maintain offshore wind parks, which play an important role in the expansion of renewable energy.”

The European Union has set its target to increase the offshore wind energy capacity to more than 60 Giga Watt by 2030 (2020: 12 GW). With its outstanding performance for the transport and hoisting of wind farm technicians, the H145 can address more than 95% of the world’s current and future offshore wind farms projects.

The new version of Airbus’ best-selling H145 light twin-engine helicopter was unveiled at Heli-Expo 2019 in Atlanta in March. This latest upgrade adds a new, innovative five-bladed rotor to the multi-mission H145, increasing the useful load of the helicopter by 150 kg. The simplicity of the new bearingless main rotor design will also ease maintenance operations, further improving the benchmark serviceability and reliability of the H145, while improving ride comfort for both passengers and crew.

There are more than 1,515 H145 family helicopters in service around the world, logging a total of more than six million flight hours. Powered by two Safran Arriel 2E engines, the H145 is equipped with full authority digital engine control (FADEC) and the Helionix digital avionics suite. It includes a high performance 4-axis autopilot, increasing safety and reducing pilot workload. Its particularly low acoustic footprint makes the H145 the quietest helicopter in its class.

HTM Helicopters is one of the largest helicopter companies in Germany and employs around 150 people. Since April 2020, it has been fully owned by HERISTO Aktiengesellschaft. The core business of the HTM Group is the provisioning of helicopters for civil and military customers, offshore operations, ambulance & passenger flights, flight training and work flights in the mountains. HTM Group features an EASA Part-145 and Part-21 G/J approved organization.