Bill Carey

Principals with Marenco Swisshelicopter (MSH) say they have firm orders for 11 new SKYe SH09 helicopters and letters of interest for 100 more. The Swiss company expects to gain European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification of the new-build, single-turbine helicopter by the fall of 2018.

 


MSH started flying its third SH09 prototype this month and plans to roll out a fourth prototype early next year. It will use three helicopters for the certification campaign. Plans call for opening a production facility at Mollis and relocating to a new engineering facility at Wetzikon, both located near Zurich.

 


“The company started as an engineering company and has now become something else,” CEO Andreas Loewenstein told reporters on Wednesday at the Paris Air Show. “We are quite happy about the evolution.”

 


At the airshow, MSH announced that Andre Borschberg, a former Swiss Air Force pilot and co-founder of the Solar Impulse project, has joined its board of directors.

 


Established in 2007 and counting former employees of Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo and Bell Helicopter among its ranks, MSH contends that the SH09—powered by a single Honeywell HTS900 turboshaft engine and featuring a carbon composite airframe, five-blade main rotor and shrouded tail rotor—offers a modern alternative to Airbus’s Ecureuil H125/130 series and Bell’s 407.

 


MSH anticipates that U.S. Federal Aviation Administration certification of the SH09 will follow six months after EASA certifies the helicopter. The company sees great potential for the helicopter in the U.S., which is less restrictive of single-engine operations than Europe.

 


“The U.S. is hungry for the aircraft,” said MSH chief customer officer Christian Gras, who argued that the SH09 provides a more efficient alternative to twin-engine helicopters for the emergency medical, police, sightseeing, offshore and other markets. Capable of carrying a pilot and up to seven passengers, the SH09 will also come standard with a winch.

 


“I am not talking about helicopter manufacturing—we are delivering a mission tool,” said Loewenstein.

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