NHIndustries
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NHIndustries (NHI) is a helicopter manufacturing company specifically established to be NATO Helicopter Management Agency's prime contractor for the design and development, industrialisation, production and logistic support of the NHIndustries NH90 series of helicopters.
Established in 1992, NHIndustries was formed as a partnership between Eurocopter of France and Germany (now Airbus Helicopters), Agusta of Italy (now Leonardo) and Stork Fokker Aerospace of the Netherlands (now Fokker Aerostructures).
HistoryEdit
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The NHIndustries NH90 is a medium-sized, twin-engine, multi-role military helicopter developed in response to NATO requirements calling for a battlefield helicopter which would also be capable of being operated in naval environments. Both development and manufacture of the rotorcraft has been principally handled by NHIndustries, a collaborative company. It is presently owned by Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo (formerly AgustaWestland) and Fokker Aerostructures.
In 1985, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom teamed to develop a NATO battlefield transport and anti-ship/anti-submarine helicopter for the 1990s. The United Kingdom left the team in 1987.<ref name= Frawley_NH_90>Frawley, Gerald. "NHIndustries NH 90". The International Directory of Military Aircraft, 2002/2003. Aerospace Publications, 2002. Template:ISBN.</ref> On 1 September 1992, NH Industries signed an NH90 design-and-development contract with NAHEMA (NATO Helicopter Management Agency).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This agency represented the four participating nations: France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. Portugal later joined the agency in June 2001.
Design work on the helicopter started in 1993.<ref name= Prototype>Template:Cite press release</ref> The first prototype, PT1, made the type's first flight on 18 December 1995.<ref name=Frawley_NH_90/><ref name=Prototype/> The second prototype, PT2, first flew on 19 March 1997 and the third prototype, PT3, on 27 November 1998.<ref name= Prototype /> On 12 December 2002, PT3 became the first helicopter to fly exclusively with fly-by-wire controls following the removal of mechanical back-up controls.<ref>MacKenzie, Christina. "NH90 prototype takes off with fly-by-wire controls." Template:Webarchive Flight International, 5 January 2004. p. 15.</ref>
The NH90 was developed into two main variants: the Tactical Transport Helicopter (TTH) and the NATO Frigate Helicopter (NFH).<ref name=Frawley_NH_90/> These two main variants share about 75% commonality with each other.<ref name = "flight cuts teeth">Hoyle, Craig. "In Focus: NH90 Caiman cuts teeth with French navy." Template:Webarchive Flight International, 19 June 2013.</ref> Many of the operators have requested specific configurations to their own helicopter fleets, thus each nation's NH90 is effectively customized to the end-user's requirements. During the development phase of the programme in the 1990s, both technical and funding problems were experienced.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In June 2000, the partner nations placed a large production order for the type, valued at US$8.6 billion, for a total of 366 helicopters.<ref name=Frawley_NH_90/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Additional orders have since followed from customers in Europe, Asia, and Australia. By April 2013, a total of 529 NH90s of all variants were on order by various customers.<ref name=DN20130408 >Template:Cite news</ref>
The NH90 was initially intended to be produced at three exporting final assembly lines (FAL); Cascina Costa in Italy for AgustaWestland, Marignane in France and Donauwörth in Germany for Airbus Helicopters. The Nordic and Australian contracts stipulated production locally (the Nordic ones at Patria in Finland and the Australian ones in Brisbane). Spain has a final assembly line at Albacete.<ref name="awst_20070101">"News Breaks", Aviation Week & Space Technology, 1 January 2007.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Marignane assembly line can reportedly complete up to 22 NH90s per year.<ref name = "flight cuts teeth"/>
The production responsibilities were divided amongst the major sections/components amongst each of the shareholding companies:
- Airbus Helicopters France 31.25% (Engines, Rotors, the Electrical, flight control and the core avionics systems)
- Airbus Helicopters Deutschland 31.25% (Forward and centre fuselage, the fuel, communications and avionics control systems)
- Fokker 5.5% (Tail structure, doors, sponsons, landing gear and the intermediate gearbox)
- AgustaWestland 32% (Rear fuselage, main gearbox, hydraulic system, automatic flight control and plant management systems, power plant and the NFH mission system)
Once fabricated, items are shipped from these companies to the six final assembly facilities, at Marignane, France; Tessera, Italy; Donauwörth, Germany; Halli, Finland; and Brisbane, Australia.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
During 2007, the NH90 first entered operational service with the German Army. During April 2010, the Royal Netherlands Navy was the first customer to receive the navalised NH90 NFH variant.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In order to speed up delivery and reduce the complexity of manufacturing a large number of variants, NH Industries proposed the adoption of a simplified baseline airframe which could be configured to the individual customer's requirements.<ref name = "simplify 90">Perry, Dominic. "NH Industries plans 'simplified' NH90 for future customers." Template:Webarchive Flight International, 25 June 2014.</ref> Between 2004 and 2016, the production lead times for the NH90 had reduced from 18 months to 7.5 months.<ref name = "prod down">Lert, Frédéric and Charles Forrester. "NH90 production winds down globally." Template:Webarchive IHS Jane's Defence Weekly, 17 January 2016.</ref> During 2014, worldwide production of the NH90 peaked at 53 helicopters.<ref name = "prod down"/> By January 2017, the NH90 had logged 127,000 flight hours in the armed forces of thirteen nations.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>