Rotorcraft
Eurocopter X4 Design Details Emerge
Eurocopter X4 medium-twin helicopter will enter service in 2017.
A new artist rendering of the in-development Eurocopter X4 medium-twin helicopter was released today during a presentation made at the EASA Rotorcraft Symposium in Cologne. It shows design changes made since the X4 was introduced in 2011, including a horizontal empennage with a two-level lifting on the tail boom and an aft-fuselage “skirt,” the role of which is unknown.
A new artist rendering of the in-development Eurocopter X4 medium-twin helicopter was released today during a presentation made at the EASA Rotorcraft Symposium in Cologne. It shows design changes made since the X4 was introduced in 2011, including a horizontal empennage with a two-level lifting on the tail boom and an aft-fuselage “skirt,” the role of which is unknown.

A new artist rendering of the in-development Eurocopter X4 medium-twin helicopter appeared today during a presentation made at the EASA Rotorcraft Symposium in Cologne, showing design changes made since 2011. A horizontal empennage with a two-level lifting surface is visible on the tailboom, forward of the shrouded tail rotor. The fuselage, aft of the cabin, includes a “skirt,” the role of which is still unknown.

Its main rotor retains five blades, which seem to be drawn from the Blue Edge research blades, have a double-swept design intended to reduce blade-vortex interaction and noise. The X4, a replacement for the AS365/EC155 Dauphin series, will compete in the 9,000- to 12,000-pound category and be released in two versions.

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