Turbine Helicopters For Lease

About Turbine Helicopters

Most modern helicopters use gas-turbine engines, which are considered more reliable, more powerful, and less complex than piston engines. Turbines are also lighter and typically produce less vibration than their piston-driven counterparts. The turboshaft engines used in helicopters are similar to a turboprop airplane’s motor, although their shaft spins overhead rotors instead of a forward-facing propeller.

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Bell 206B III Turbine Helicopter

Broad Variety

The cost of a turbine-powered helicopter on ControllerEMEA.co.uk can range from a few hundred-thousand to several million euros. The site offers everything from brand-new models in current production to vintage ‘copters from the early 1960s.

Turbine helicopters may come with as few as two seats, while larger models such as the MIL MI-8MTV-1 may be outfitted with seating for as many as 36. Total time can range from less than 100 hours on a gently used late-model craft to 20,000 or even 30,000 hours on a well-maintained workhorse.

History

The concept for helicopters dates to a 400 B.C.-era Chinese book that provided details for how to construct a “flying top” helicopter-like toy. Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, and other notable inventors also offered helicopter-like concepts and designs over the years.

A French bicycle maker, Paul Cornu, achieved the first manned free flight in a rotary-winged aircraft on November 13, 1907 in Coquainvilliers near Lisieux. The twin-rotor “Flying Bicycle” he designed and built was somewhat impractical, but it did hover a foot or more off the ground for about 20 seconds. Later, Russian-born Igor Sikorsky designed the first working helicopter and submitted a U.S. patent for it in 1931. He first flew his VS-300 on September 14, 1939, at Stratford, Connecticut.

American Charles Kaman is credited with constructing the first turbine-powered helicopter, the K-225. Powered by a Boeing B502-2 engine, it underwent its first test flight on December 11, 1951, in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Three years later, a modified Kaman HTK-1 became the first twin-turbine helicopter to take flight. The Alouette II from Sud-Est (later known as “Sud Aviation”) became the first turbine-powered helicopter to go into production in 1956.

Find The Right Turbine Helicopter

Look for new and pre-owned turbine helicopters for sale on ControllerEMEA.co.uk (in both the Turbine Helicopters and Turbine Military Aircraft categories) from manufacturers including Agusta, Airbus, Bell, Eurocopter, Leonardo, McDonnell Douglas, Robinson, and Sikorsky. You’ll also find a big selection of piston helicopters for sale on the site.