Quite A Spectacle... For What May Turn Out To Be A Spectacular
Helo
If there's one company that made a spectacular impression on
attendees of last month's Heli-Expo 2008 in Houston , TX , it would
have to be Eurocopter. In addition to featuring an increasingly
diverse -- and popular -- product line, the company also unveiled a
full-size mockup of its upcoming seven-ton-class, 16-passenger
EC175.
The splashy ceremony had teeth to it, too... as the EC175 is
highly anticipated by a number of customers, particularly those in
the oil and gas industry. Indeed, Eurocopter used the unveiling to
introduce the first two customers for the helo -- US-based Bristow
Group, and Canada 's VIH -- but the helomaker reportedly left the
show with a slew of new orders that pushed to-date orders and
commitments to 111 units.
Those orders come from across the globe, including Europe: UTair
(Russia), Bond (UK), Dancopter (Denmark), Heli-Union (France), NHV
(Belgium); USA (ERA and Halvorson Group); Mexico (Pegaso);
Asia-Pacific: Global Vectra (India), HNZ (New-Zealand).
All those customers intend to use the EC175 mainly for offshore
oil and gas missions, according to Eurocopter, as well as SAR
operations.
"I am extremely proud of the success of the EC175 which honestly
speaking largely exceeded our expectations in terms of number of
customers and units," said Lutz Bertling, President and CEO of
Eurocopter. "This success illustrates that the EC175 perfectly
complements the current Eurocopter product range and obviously
meets market needs.
Pratt & Whitney Canada 's new-generation PT6C-67E engine
will power the EC175. In a nod to increased globalization of the
helicopter industry, Eurocopter partnered with Harbin Aviation
Industry Group, a subsidiary of China 's AVIC II corporation, to
develop the EC175.
Join Aero-TV For The Unveiling Of
Eurocopter's EC-175!
About Aero-TV: It's DEFINITELY Show
Time!!!!
OK, folks, here we go... we are NOW initiating the first
feature programming series for Aero-TV... we're going to take it
slow, but we're also going to try and be steady about this. DO
UNDERSTAND that this is the most complex media program we've ever
undertaken and what you're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg...
but from here on out, we will be doing our best to educate,
inform, and entertain YOU about all aspects of the exciting worlds
of aviation and aerospace.
If you've been an observer of the media and associated media
industries over the last few years, it's not hard to mistake the
fact that a massive revolution is taking place. Old sources for
news and information are falling by the wayside, having to change
their modus operandi or risk obsolescence (or extinction).
Electronic media and print media are both under the assault of
progress, and the online world has been a cornerstone for
revolutionary change.
We've been ready to go for a while, but to be honest, there's so
much more to this program than we've alluded to, and so we've been
building and planning a massive new organization within ANN. That
said, we're hiring talented new people as
fast as we can find them (a far more difficult
task than we had imagined -- REALLY good people are hard to find),
and we're brainstorming at speeds that would make a deorbiting
Space Shuttle feel like a slug. Suffice it to say that we wanted to
do this right, rather than right-now, and that the development of
this program has been the most carefully pursued undertaking we've
ever undertaken.
E-I-C Note: The
complete feature shown above is embedded in this
story, with most of the slick and useful functionality
otherwise available on the main Aero-TV site (which will be
upgraded aggressively over the next few weeks). The ability to
embed a video on another web page is but one of the hundreds
of amazing little features that we've worked hard on, for many
months now, to implement in different phases of the initial
release of Aero-TV. It is, BY NO MEANS, the only way to enjoy
unaltered Aero-TV programming on other parts of the web... as we
have extensive plans for future functionality, but this
feature allows those with an interest in a specific Aero-TV News or
Feature program to embed it on a different web site, though we
must note that we reserve the right to forbid such use for those
sites or purposes that we do not feel fit in with the proper
mission of the Aero-News Network, Inc.
Webmasters or Administrators of well-trafficked aviation or
aerospace related sites, are welcome to contact the Publisher to
start conversations on how they may be able to leverage some of the
immense power of Aero-TV programming for their sites and
constituency by clicking the I Want Aero-TV For
MY Website! link.
Coming Soon!
Aero-TV Shows You How To Build A Glasair Sportsman
2+2 in RECORD TIME, Flies The Piper Matrix, Has An
Amazing Series on the Eclipse ECJ Program (3 parts!), Hears What's
Hot At Blue Mountain Avionics, Gets Some GREAT Rotax Lessons, More
On Gobosh--This Time, Though, On the NEW G800!, Checks Out More
"HIGH" Tech at I/ITSEC 2007, Hears From AOPA On Critical
Aviation Issues, Spills Some Juicy (and HIGHLY Detailed) Cirrus G3
Info, Catches Up On ALL Things SkyCatcher, Scores A BUNCH
of LSA Reports, and SO MUCH MORE!!!!! Do NOT Miss
Them!