Rotorcraft
EC 145 bows in quietly
Quietly making its debut at this summer’s Paris Air Show was Eurocopter’s long-awaited EC 145.

Quietly making its debut at this summer’s Paris Air Show was Eurocopter’s long-awaited EC 145. Essentially a stretched, beefed-up version of the hot-selling BK117 (in this case, the C-1 variant of the helicopter that’s come to be the darling of the aeromedical transport market), the EC 145 can seat as many as 10 passengers and crew.

With performance figures roughly comparable to its predecessor’s, the EC 145 can carry an additional 500 lb and do it a lot more quietly. In flyover, takeoff and approach, it scores well under the noise maximums set by both ICAO and the FAA, with a 60-percent lower noise signature than the BK117 C-1.

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