The 17 Dauphins and EC145 in Belgium's Noordzee Helikopters Vlaanderen fleet are to be joined by ten of the larger EC175 seven-tonne category helicopters. Deliveries will begin next year and will continue through 2015.

The aircraft will be equipped for missions that include transportation flights for the oil and gas sector, and future applications will include search and rescue missions.

"The NHV team prides itself in owning and operating a very young fleet with state-of-the-art equipment, and the EC175 meets our company's strategy to significantly invest in helicopters with the latest design for the heavier mid-size segment," says ceo Eric Van Hal. "This will position us for the future to serve all our clients at the highest standards."

Created in 1997, privately-owned NHV specialises in business-to-business helicopter transport. It provides services for the Belgian and Dutch Maritime Pilot Service; search and rescue missions for the Dutch Ministry of Defense; oil and gas industry transportation in Europe, South America and Africa; along with emergency medical airlift for various European hospitals. The NHV aircraft fleet is located in nine countries on three continents.

The multi-role EC175 fits into Eurocopter's product range between the AS365 Dauphin (four to five metric tons) and the AS332/EC225 Super Puma (nine to 11 metric tons) aircraft families. It benefits from a mix of proven and advanced technologies, providing excellent performance and reliability. This includes unique flight envelope protection and pilot assistance with the most advanced 4-axis dual-duplex automatic flight control system – derived from the EC225 – and a highly intuitive new avionics and human machine interface.

Pilot workload is decreased as the result of better situational awareness and the help of an innovative crew-alerting concept, supported by a powerful vehicle monitoring system.

When it enters service at the end of this year, the EC175 will incorporate significantly increased range and payload capacity, says Eurocopter.