Military Aircraft Videos

Eurocopter Tiger / Nh-90 /Bourget Airshow 2005

http://www.aviationlive.org Online Aviation Pics,Videos and Forum The Eurocopter Tiger is an attack helicopter manufactured by the Eurocopter Group. In Germany it is known as the Tiger; in France and Spain it is called the Tigre. It is also designated the EC 665 or PAH-2. French governments issued a requirement for an advanced multi-role battlefield helicopter. A joint venture consisting of MBB and Aerospatiale was subsequently chosen as the preferred supplier. Due to high costs, the program was canceled in 1986, but was relaunched during 1987. Subsequently, in November 1989, Eurocopter received a contract to build 5 prototypes. Three were to be unarmed testbeds and the other two armed prototypes: one for the German anti-tank variant and the other for the French escort helicopter variant. The first prototype first flew in April 1991. When Aerospatiale and MBB, among others, merged in 1992 to form the Eurocopter Group, the Tiger program was transferred as well. Serial production of the Tiger began in March 2002 and the first flight of the first production Tiger HAP for the French Army took place in March 2003. The delivery of the first of the eighty helicopters ordered by the French took place in September 2003. At the end of 2003 deliveries began of the 80 UHT version combat support helicopters ordered by Germany to the Federal Office of Defense Technology and Procurement. The NHI NH90 is a medium sized, twin-engine, multi-role military helicopter manufactured by NHIndustries, a company established by Agusta, Eurocopter and Stork Fokker Aerospace. The NH90, which can be flown by a single pilot, is designed to operate by night and day and in poor weather. It has been ordered by several nations and is expected to enter service from 2007. On 1 September 1992, NH Industries signed a NH90 design-and-development contract with NAHEMA (NATO Helicopter Management Agency). This agency represented the four participating nations: Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands. Portugal joined the agency on 21 June 2001. The design work started in 1993, with the first prototype, the PT1, making its first flight on 18 December 1995. A second prototype, the PT2, first flew on 19 March 1997 and the third prototype, the PT3, on 27 November 1998. The NH90 program is handled by NH Industries while production shares of the 3 Partner Companies involved are 32.00% for AgustaWestland -- Italy, 62.50% for Eurocopter -- France and Germany, and 5.50% for Fokker Aerospace - The Netherlands. The NH90 has been developed into two main variants: the Tactical Transport Helicopter (TTH) and the NATO Frigate Helicopter (NFH), however, many of the customer countries have requested special solutions for their NH90s. The program had some technical and funding problems in the beginning of the 1990s, but a large production order for 298 helicopters was launched on 30 June 2000 by the partner countries. This soon followed by a series of orders from Europe and Asia/Australia. In 2001, three Nordic countries signed purchase orders, Sweden placed an order for 25 helicopters, Finland for 20 helicopters, and Norway for 24 helicopters. On 29 August 2003, Greece ordered 34 NH90s with another 14 in option. In 2005 Australia ordered 12. The number was revised In June 2006 when Australia announced plans to order at least 34 more NH90s, taking their total order to 46[1]. In Australian service, the NH90 will be known as the MRH-90, where MRH stands for Multi Role Helicopter[2]. In July, 2006, the Saudi Government signed a contract to purchase a total of 142 helicopters, including 64 NH-90, 20 Eurocopter Cougar, 42 Eurocopter Fennec, 4 Eurocopter Panther naval, and 12 Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopters. [1] In July 2006, the New Zealand Government signed a contract to purchase 8 NH90s to replace their Air Force's fleet of Iroquois. The program ran into a 2 year production delay due to the complicated type approval procedure, and the first NH90s were delivered by late 2006 to the German Army. These will be followed by Italian and Finnish helicopters in 2007. Later during 2007, the Italian and French navies will start to receive their NFH versions and the first Swedish and Norwegian NH90s will also be delivered. The NH90 was initially intended to be produced at 3 main assembly lines; Cascina Costa in Italy for AgustaWestland, Marignane in France and Donauwörth in Germany for Eurocopter. However, the Nordic and Australian contracts stipulated production locally (the Nordic ones at Patria in Finland). france germany italy nh-90 eurocopter tiger aerospatiale attack helicopter chopper bourget airshow 2005 army navy europ