Airbus Helicopters has carried out the primary flight of its new DisruptiveLab know-how demonstrator that can take a look at a bunch of latest applied sciences designed to chop carbon emissions by as much as 50%.

Announced on the airframer’s Summit 2022 event last December, Airbus Helicopters chief govt Bruno Even had promised a first-flight milestone by year-end.

Although floor testing started late within the 12 months, the all-new single-engined demonstrator (F-WADL) didn’t make its maiden sortie till 13 January.

No particulars of the primary flight’s length have been instantly out there, though video footage launched by Airbus Helicopters exhibits the plane performing a sequence of low-level hovering manouevres at its Marginane facility within the south of France.

Technologies below analysis embrace a redesigned rotor head, an aerodynamically improved composite and aluminium fuselage, a slimline tail increase designed round a maintenance-free absolutely enclosed transmission, and a smaller and lighter Fenestron shrouded tail rotor.

Additionally, the DisruptiveLab is fitted with a parallel hybrid-electric drive system which is able to recharging the batteries throughout in flight. Airbus Helicopters has but to reveal which firm has provided the hybrid drivetrain.