Future military transport and naval helicopter, the NH90, has completed the crash safety test at Eurocopter’s Ottobrunn facility in Germany. A few marginal, non-critical areas aside, the helicopter proved its ability to withstand a crash, Eurocopter claims.

The centre fuselage section of the NH90 with all equipment and instrumentation successfully demonstrated its ability to protect passengers in accordance with the customers’ specifications. The module was also loaded with 13 dummies during the test.

The main focus of the exercise was to test vital characteristics such as the integrity of the fuselage structure, the energy absorption of the lower floor structure, special load absorption mechanisms, the seal integrity of the fuel system and the proper functioning of the troop seats.

The five NAHEMA nations have already placed 377 NH90 orders, 253 of which are fixed orders and 55 are options.

There are also 52 fixed orders and 17 options from the three Nordic countries Finland, Norway

and Sweden.

Scheduled delivery of the aircraft to the armed forces of the NAHEMA nations is predicted to occur in 2004.