Operational History
The EC135 made its US debut at the Heli-Expo in January 1995 at Las Vegas. After over 1,600 flight hours, European JAA certification was achieved on 16 June 1996, with FAA approval following on 31 July. Deliveries started on 1 August, when two helicopters (0005 and 0006) were handed over to Deutsche Rettungsflugwacht. The 100th EC135 was handed over to the Bavarian police force in June 1999. By that time the worldwide fleet had accumulated approximately 30,000 flight hours. As of 2008, the fleet total stood at over 1 million flight hours, with over 650 aircraft delivered.
Single-pilot IFR (SPIFR) certification was granted by the German LBA on 2 December 1999. Deliveries to the German Aviators Corps began on 13 September 2000 at the German Army Aviators School at Bückeburg Air Base near Achum, Germany. The EC135 received SPIFR certification from the UK CAA in December 2000.
In autumn 2000, Eurocopter announced the start of certification work for the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW206B2, a version of the PW207 which offers improved single-engine performance and 30 second emergency power. The LBA certification was achieved on 10 July 2001, and the first EC135 with the new engines was handed over to the Swedish National Police on 10 August 2001.
The world fleet leader in aircraft hours for this type is G-NESV (s/n 0067) operated by Cleveland Police Air Operations Unit based at Durham Tees Valley Airport, UK. This aircraft was originally delivered to the North East Air Support Unit in April 1999, and by 2009 it had clocked up almost 12,000 hours.
At the NBAA in March 2007 in Atlanta, Eurocopter unveiled ‘L’Hélicoptère par Hermès, a special-edition VIP model designed by Hermès International, S.A.. This variant features a specially-created luxury four-place main cabin, a sliding glass partition, a corporate baggage hold, redesigned skid landing gear and other external changes. Launch customer for ‘L’Hélicoptère par Hermès is Falcon Aviation Services (FAS), based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
2011, Eurocopter entered the Chinese business market licensing the Zhong-Ou International Group to produce the EC135 Luxury Helicopter in the Zhejiang province.
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