FIRST FLIGHT OF THE HELLENIC MULTIROLE NH90

NHIndustries is proud to announce that the first Hellenic Army NH90 took to the air today at the Eurocopter Marignane facility in France.
The flight started at 15:48 and lasted 1h 35 minutes. The NH90 was flown by:
- Boniface Jean-Pierre ROLDAN experimental test pilot,
- Dominique FOURNIER flight test engineer,
- Jean-Claude RABANY flight engineer.
This is the sixth serial production NH90 leaving the ground, following NH90 for Germany, Finland (the first), Italy and Sweden.
On 29 August 2003, Greece ordered 20 NH90 and Logistic Support together with a corresponding offset agreement involving Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI).
The 16 NH90 Tactical Transport and 4 NH90 Special Operations helicopters will be operated by the Army Aviation. Both configurations are equipped with Rolls-Royce Turbomeca RTM322-01/9 engines. Also to be noted is that all Hellenic NH90 can be converted into a MEDEVAC variant thanks to 4 role change kits included in the order.
14 optional NH90 are also to be taken into account, consisting of up to 12 Tactical Transport and 2 Special Operation variants.
In addition to the outstanding features common to both Standard Cabin and High Cabin Version of the NH90 (full Fly-By-Wire flight control system, full composite crashworthy airframe, full aircraft/avionics/mission system integration…), the Hellenic NH90 introduces to the world a state-of-the-art Special Operation suite to enhance the capability of the user to support diverse military scenarios.
The delivery of the whole series of 20 Hellenic NH90 will be achieved by the beginning of 2009 as planned, by the beginning of 2011 if the 14 options are confirmed.
By flying this sixth serial production NH90 related to 5 different customers from different natures, NHIndustries demonstrates its comprehensive proficiency in managing the widest multi-national military helicopter programme ever proposed to the most modern Armed Forces in the world.
Today, full-scale production is rapidly proceeding with more than 40 NH90 on assembly line in France, Germany, Italy and Finland while the current NH90 logbook shows a total of 357 firm orders, 86 options and 45+ selected NH90, by 13 countries and for 17 Armed Forces.
NHIndustries is responsible for the NH90 programme management, marketing, sales, and after sales support. Production shares of the 3 Partner Companies involved are 32.00% for AgustaWestland – Italy, 62.50% for Eurocopter – France and Germany, and 5.50% for Fokker Aerospace - The Netherlands.