In December, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) awarded the certification of the increased maximum take-off weight (MTOW) for the H145. With this enhancement, the helicopter can carry an extra 50kg, raising the MTOW to a total of 3.7 metric tons.  It will be available for customers in early 2016. As the improvement does not require any structural modifications or additional equipment, it will not cause extra costs for the operators.

“By raising the MTOW we are improving the mission capability of the H145, which is highly beneficial for all operators, especially in emergency medical services (EMS), law enforcement and offshore missions, where both high payload and maximum range are directly relevant for efficient helicopter operations”, said Manfred Merk, Head of the H145 programme. “The new MTOW converts in pure useful load, be it more payload or more fuel.”