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The monthly news publication for aviation professionals.

ACE 2026 - September 8th

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First of four H125s arrives at ETPS
Formula 1 style telemetry will keep tabs on the progress of trainee pilots flying Empire's new H125s. Realtime data will be streamed to Boscombe Down.
From left: Colin James, managing director, Airbus Helicopters UK; Earl Howe, Minister of State for Defence; and Nic Anderson, managing director air and space, Qinetiq. (© Airbus 2018, photo by P. Masclet/Master films).
Read this story in our August 2018 printed issue.

Empire Test Pilots School (ETPS), part of Qinetiq, has taken delivery of the first of four Airbus Helicopters H125 aircraft. All four ETPS H125s will be delivered following customisation by Airbus Helicopters' UK design team, which will equip the aircraft with a three-axis autopilot, dedicated communications equipment and a traffic awareness system.

A flight test instrumentation suite will also be installed which, in a similar fashion to Formula 1 motor racing telemetry, transmits data to the ETPS base at Boscombe Down in real-time, allowing students in practical and class-based environments to test and evaluate aircraft design and performance.

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