Airbus H160 - flies smooth, made fast

There is as much innovation in the way the H160 is made as there is in the helicopter itself. Ian Parker reports.

Airbus Helicopters calls its H160 model ‘The first of the next generation.’ This applies to the way the aircraft is made as well as its design. There are 68 filed patents on the type. These include the Blue Edge main rotor blades, claimed to make half the sound with zero flapping noise, a new canted Fenestron for greater useful load and a flat attitude, and new Safran Arrano engines giving fuel savings and lower emissions.

The manufacturer also claims ‘no vibration’ even at max cruise (155kt), the best volume per seat with a 12-passenger interior, and high capacity new generation air conditioning. The H160 is likely to be highly competitive in the medium market and has already had considerable success with both civil and military customers. Operations are expected to start next year with customer Babcock.

Airbus’ digital helicopter avionics suite, Helionix, as well as the 4-axis autopilot, further contribute to the H160’s safety by significantly reducing pilot workload, says the company. Along with the integrated automatic functions, Helionix allows the pilot to concentrate on the mission at hand. The H160 has also been designed to facilitate ease of maintenance, giving it accessibility similar to that of a light-twin helicopter. The aircraft’s optimised accessibility has been praised by operators who have flown the H160, says the manufacturer.

All-composite construction

The all-composite aircraft is made with advanced production techniques which not only benefit the manufacturer, but also the customer.

“The H160 has been designed to be assembled from major component assemblies (MCAs) just like Airbus commercial aircraft,” begins Laurence Béjat, head of the H160 final assembly line (FAL). “The MCAs are modular and allow us to have a ‘plug and play’ concept in the final assembly line. This gives a minimal number of tasks to be performed in the line which has five work stations. Four are dedicated to pure assembly and the last one is for testing and final inspection.

“This lets us assemble an H160 quickly. The line will produce 30 aircraft a year of all the different civil versions - oil and gas, EMS, VIP and we’re already working on a public services version.

“Our industrial strategy includes site specialisation. We are capitalising on our capabilities at different sites. The MCAs have gone together without any problems. The maturity is already very high. We have used our 3D design capabilities on this aircraft and we have simulated a lot of things including the design of the tooling and also the way we assemble them. We used a lot of methodology coming from the automotive sector - such as RING methodology.”

Airbus Helicopters defines this as assembly of the first series aircraft by rigorously following the optimal assembly sequence, with the main parties present.

The MCAs are made in four assembly lines, one in Spain, one in Germany and two in France. This is in keeping with the Airbus philosophy of site specialisation. The H160's construction represents a new production method for Airbus Helicopters, with its fuselage manufactured at the company's facility in Donauwörth in Germany, tail booms in Albacete, Spain, and avionics and other dynamic components - such as gearboxes and rotor blades - at sites throughout France, including Paris and Marignane. Final assembly of the helicopters takes place at Marignane.

“We checked through virtual simulation that everything fitted together. Even the ergonomic aspects were assessed in this early phase. Thanks to this RING methodology, we have industrialised our aircraft better. We use specific and dynamic animation. We are looking for anything that can slow down production.”

The Blue Edge blades were first tested on an H155. Today, the Blue Edge blades on the H160 benefit from mature manufacturing. They are mainly carbon fibre and characterised by their complex shape, but they are not difficult to manufacture.

“Our approach means the aircraft is in final assembly for just 40 days which is very short,” states Béjat. “Also, the customer will be able to select the mission of the aircraft as little as 24 weeks before delivery. We have also reduced the number of components to about 1,000 and for similar aircraft it is four to five times more.”

The MCAs are assembled equipped and tested and the conformity is checked so that there are no problems on the assembly line or the flight line. Defects will have been caught earlier.

“We have a lot of automation in our final assembly. It takes only five minutes to move an aircraft from one station to the next with no people. In the past it took more than one hour with five employees for safety. Our philosophy is ‘faster, safer.’”

Automate to innovate

Airbus is using robots to install major assemblies in one hour, such as the cockpit, rear fuselage and avionics bay. The company is also improving the working conditions for the employees.

“One of the outcomes is that absenteeism is very low,” she adds. “We do not have accidents. All this goes towards reducing production time. All work instructions are in digital mode and we collect data to drive our improvement plan from any problems encountered on the shop floor. This is very important for continual improvement.

“The Hélicoptère Interarmées Léger (HIL) military H160M will be produced in exactly the same way and we want to keep as much similarity as possible with the civil aircraft. The airframe will be reinforced in some locations to carry specific military equipment. HIL deliveries have been brought forward to 2026, but this will not cause us any difficulties. It is good news for us. We will be ready for it.”

The 169 HILs will replace the Dauphin, Gazelle, Dauphin, Fennec and Alouette III in the three French Armed Forces. Up to 400 H160Ms are expected to be sold worldwide.

“We are still in the development phase of the HIL with the French Armed Forces to better specify their requirements,” Béjat says. “But to be ready one year earlier for production is no problem.”

www.airbus.com/helicopters