The French government has ordered an additional two five-bladed H145s, which are destined to equip the Sécurité Civile, an agency of the Ministry of Interior that performs rescue and air medical transport services throughout France. The initial pair of H145s have just been delivered in December.

“The Sécurité Civile has launched an ambitious, multi-year programme to modernise its means of intervention in order to adapt to the evolution and demands of our public service missions" says prefect Alain Thirion, director general. “We operate day and night from our 23 bases in France and overseas territories. On average, one person is rescued every 33 minutes by one of our ‘Dragon’ helicopters and these two new aircraft will reinforce the operational capacity of the men and women of the Sécurité Civile throughout France.”

Bruno Even, Airbus Helicopters CEO, adds: “We are proud to be providing Sécurité Civile with two more five-bladed H145s. This follow-up to the contract signed in the frame of the French stimulus plan for the aerospace industry offers Airbus Helicopters visibility while we navigate this global health and economic crisis. The new five-bladed H145 will be an asset to the critical missions that the Sécurité Civile performs as we have seen during the various waves of the pandemic and the flooding in France.”

Certified by EASA in June 2020, this new version of Airbus' best-selling H145 light twin engine helicopter brings an innovative five-bladed rotor to the multi-mission helicopter, increasing useful load by 150kg. Powered by two Safran Arriel 2E engines, the H145 is equipped with FADEC and the Helionix digital avionics suite. It includes a high performance four-axis autopilot, increasing safety and reducing pilot workload. Its particularly low acoustic footprint makes the H145 the quietest helicopter in its class. There are more than 1,515 H145 family helicopters in service around the world, which have logged a total of more than six million flight hours.

Established in 1957, the helicopter division of the Sécurité Civile operates a fleet of 33 EC145 helicopters that are on call 24/7 throughout France for rescue missions.