Airbus Helicopters has celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Gazelle’s maiden flight during a conference at the museum of aviation in St Victoret, near the company headquarters. Fifty years after its inaugural flight on 7 April 1967, the Gazelle is still being operated by nearly 100 customers in 34 countries.
Developed and manufactured in cooperation with the U.K. at the end of the 1960s, the Gazelle has since seen deliveries pass the 1,250 mark. Today 470 rotorcraft – more than a third of all Gazelles manufactured – are still in service, a hundred of which are operated by the French Army.
A helicopter of many “firsts”, the Gazelle was the first Airbus helicopter to be equipped with the Fenestron (though the system was not installed for initial flights) to improve safety around the tail rotor on the ground and reduce noise levels. It was also the first Airbus helicopter to be equipped with glass-resin blades developed in cooperation with Germany’s Bölkow.
Finally, it was the first helicopter in the world to be awarded the IFR qualification, category I, by the FAA, allowing operators to fly to instrument flight rules with a single pilot on board.
On 15 May 1971, the Gazelle broke three speed records in its category:
- over 3km: 310km/h,
- 15/25km: 312km/h,
- over 100km in a closed circuit: 296km/h.
Nearly 80% of the rotorcraft in service are used by armies around the world. By the end of December 2016, the Gazelle fleet had accumulated more than 7 million flight hours. The Gazelles (SA341 and SA342) that have accumulated the most flight hours (14,200 and 13,100 respectively) are currently operating in the United States.