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EUROCOPTER GROUP |
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| INTERNATIONAL |
Founded in January 1992, Eurocopter is now said to be the first fully integrated European Aeronautical company. Up to 1997 Eurocopter Holdings SA, which owned 75 percent of Eurocopter SA, had been owned by Aerospatiale of France and Daimler-Benz Aerospace of Germany. Since 1997 all the participants have been merged, only Eurocopter Deutschland remaining as a Eurocopter-owned subsidiary. Several of the older helicopters originated as Aerospatiale or MBB types. In 1998 Eurocopter delivered 216 new helicopters to customers and received orders for 272, giving the company a turnover that year of about 11.1 thousand million Francs. Its product range in 1999 includes the twin-engined civil Super Puma AS 332 (first flown September 1978) and military Cougar AS 532 variant, light multirole AS 350 Ecureuil (first flown June 1974) and military Fennec AS 550 variant, twin-engined Ecureuil AS 355 (first flown September 1979) plus similar Fennec AS 555 military version, the larger 12-passenger Dauphin AS 365 N (first flown as Panther AS 365 M in February 1984) and military Panther AS 565, new-generation EC 155 "wide-body" medium-twin (first flown June 1997), BO 105 (first flown February 1967) and EC Super Five related light helicopter, EC 135/635 civil/military light multipurpose helicopters (first flown as EC 135 February 1994), and Tiger (Tigre) anti-armour, combat support, plus escort/support tandem two-seater (first flown April 1991). Eurocopter also participates in the Colibri EC 120 B light civil helicopter program with China and Singapore (first flown June 1995), the BK117 program with Kawasaki of Japan (first flown June 1979), in Euromil with Mil of Russia, and in the NHIndustries NH90 (q.v.).
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 All the World's Rotorcraft |
