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The Airbus Helicopters AS365 Dauphin (''Dolphin''), formerly known as the Aérospatiale SA 365 Dauphin 2 and the Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin, is a medium-weight multipurpose twin-engine helicopter currently produced by Airbus Helicopters. It was originally developed and manufactured by French firm Aérospatiale, which was merged into the multinational Eurocopter company during the 1990s. Since entering production in 1975, the type has been in continuous production for more than 40 years. The intended successor to the Dauphin is the Airbus Helicopters H160, which is yet to enter operational service as of March 2015.〔Perry, Dominic. ("Airbus Helicopters targets AW139 with new H160" ) ''Flight International'', 3 March 2015.〕 The Dauphin 2 shares many similarities with the Aérospatiale SA 360, a commercially unsuccessful single-engine helicopter; however the twin-engine Dauphin 2 did meet with customer demands and has been operated by a wide variety of civil and military operators. Since the type's introduction in the 1970s, several major variations and specialised versions of the Dauphin 2 have been developed and entered production, including the military-oriented Eurocopter Panther, the air-sea rescue HH/MH-65 Dolphin, the Chinese-manufactured Harbin Z-9 and the modernised Eurocopter EC155. ==Development== The SA 365/AS365 Dauphin 2 is a twin-engine development of the commercially unsuccessful single-engined Aérospatiale SA 360 Dauphin; only a year after the SA 360's entery into service, Aerospatiale had recognized that a platform powered by two engines rather than one was better suited to both civil and military operations, thus a redesign program was initiated.〔〔McGowen 2005, p. 125.〕 In January 1975, the first twin-engine Dauphine prototype performed its first flight; the prototype soon demonstrated an airspeed of 170 knots in level flight and set multiple speed records.〔 Deliveries of production models began later that decade.〔 The initial production variant entered service under the original designation of SA 365C; French certification of this model was received in July 1978.〔 In 1982, the SA 356C Dauphin was succeeded by the more capable SA 365 N. Amongst several major design changes and improvements, the SA 365 N featured more powerful engines, greater use of composite materials, a better cabin arrangement, and retractable landing gear.〔Chant 2014, p. 353.〕〔McClellan 1989, p. 77.〕 Further improvements were made with the introduction of the SA 365 N1, which had a substantially redesigned Fenestron anti-torque device, and with the SA 365 N2, which was equipped with more powerful Turbomeca Arriel 1C2 turboshaft engines.〔 In January 1990, the overall type was formally redesignated as the AS365. The AS365 Dauphin is one of Eurocopter's more successful helicopter designs; and has been widely used as a corporate transport, airborne law enforcement platform, emergency medical services (EMS) helicopter, electronic news gathering platform, and search & rescue helicopter. The base Dauphin has been further developed into several purpose-built variants. During the 1980s, the SA 365 N was used as the basis for a militarised version of the Dauphin, initially designed as AS 365 K, which was used to perform utility, troop-transport, and maritime operations, widely known as the Eurocopter Panther.〔McGowen 2005, p. 163.〕 A variant of the Dauphin was specifically developed for and operated principally by the United States Coast Guard under the designation HH/MH-65 Dolphin. The SA 365 M model of the Dauphin has also been manufactured under licence in China as the Z-9 by the Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation; the Z-9 was subsequently developed into the armed WZ-9 and Z-19 attack helicopter.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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