Following its first flight on 22 November 2018, Kopter’s SH09 third prototype (P3) has completed more than 50 hours of testing at the company facility in Mollis, Switzerland, where it has been produced and is currently supported.

The aircraft climbed up to 5,000 ft and reached a speed of 126 kts, while performing a series of manoeuvres such as turns, autorotations and short field take-off and landing profiles.

Chief technical officer and head of flight operations Michele Riccobono comments: “The team is very pleased with the results of this flight test phase. The aircraft behaved as expected, confirming the initial design assumptions of the SH09 concept. We look forward to pursuing the flight test programme in Sicily in order to complete the final optimisation of our aircraft and freeze the configuration for the baseline type certificate.”

P3 is getting ready to join its new flight test base in Pozzallo, in the province of Ragusa, Sicily, where it will perform an intensive flight test campaign to significantly open the flight envelope of the helicopter. This campaign will allow Kopter to confirm the aircraft’s performance which is essential to its customers.

The Kopter team is finalising the design of Pre-series 4 (PS4), which incorporates optimisations derived from P3 operations.

In parallel to P3's flights, the design of PS4 is being finalised, with its build-up set to start in the next few months. An important evolution is the enlarged cabin of PS4, allowing the SH09 to carry one more passenger; up to eight passengers in addition to the pilot. This results from the new design of the fuel tank system. The payload capabilities of the SH09 are confirmed, while the maximum take-off weight has been increased to 2,850 kg (3,000kg for external loads).

Once completed, PS4 will join the flight test activities of P3 in Sicily to contribute to type certification. It will essentially be employed to develop the different mission configurations of the SH09, testing the avionics, cabin interiors and optional equipment that will be available to customers.

An additional aircraft, Pre-series 5 (PS5) will be added to the test fleet to specifically cover the extension of the flight envelope towards both hot and high conditions and low temperature operations.