Airbus Helicopters, Inc. (AHI) is a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

of Airbus Americas, Inc., the United States subsidiary of

Airbus SAS Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate defence and space and helicopter divisions. Airbus has long been the ...

, itself a subsidiary of the Dutch company

Airbus SE Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate defence and space and helicopter divisions. Airbus has long been th ...

. Airbus Helicopters manufactures and markets a broad range of

civil Civil may refer to: *Civility, orderly behavior and politeness *Civic virtue, the cultivation of habits important for the success of a society *Civil (journalism) ''The Colorado Sun'' is an online news outlet based in Denver, Colorado. It lau ...

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

s. With large facilities in Texas and Mississippi and service centers throughout the country, Airbus Helicopters, Inc. has a U.S. footprint of over 860,000 square feet (79,900 m²) and controls over 50% of the U.S. market.

History

The company's history goes back to the now-defunct LTV Corporation. In 1968, Vought Helicopter Inc. (VHI), a subsidiary of LTV, built a facility at the

Grand Prairie Municipal Airport Grand Prairie Municipal Airport is five miles southwest of Grand Prairie, a city largely in Dallas County, Texas. Most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, but Grand Prairie Municipal Airport is GP ...

Grand Prairie, Texas Grand Prairie is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Dallas County, Texas, Dallas, Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant, and Ellis County, Texas, Ellis counties with a small part extending into Johnson County, Texas , Johnson county. It ...

, for the purpose of marketing helicopters to North America built by

Aérospatiale Aérospatiale () was a major French state-owned aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and arms industry, defence corporation. It was founded in 1970 as () through the merger of three established state-owned companies: Sud Aviation, Nord Aviation ...

, the French helicopter manufacturer. However, six years later Aérospatiale bought out VHI and took over its own marketing; two years later it changed VHI's name to Aérospatiale Helicopter Corporation (AHC). In 1980, AHC built its current Grand Prairie facility. In 1992,

DASA DASA (officially Deutsche AeroSpace AG, later Daimler-Benz AeroSpace AG, then DaimlerChrysler AeroSpace AG) was a German aerospace manufacturer. It was created during 1989 as the aerospace subsidiary arm of Daimler-Benz, Daimler-Benz AG (later D ...

of Germany and Aérospatiale merged to form

Eurocopter Airbus Helicopters SAS (formerly Eurocopter S.A., trade name, trading as Eurocopter Group) is the helicopter manufacturer, helicopter manufacturing division of Airbus. It is the largest in the industry in terms of revenues and turbine helicopte ...

; AHC would become American Eurocopter. In 2004, the facility in Columbus, Mississippi was opened and in 2006, became the manufacturing facility and home for the U.S. Army's UH-72A Lakota helicopter. The company was renamed Airbus Helicopters, Inc. on January 2, 2014.

US production plants

Airbus Helicopters produces helicopters at two production plants in the US. *

** Grand Prairie serves as the headquarters and main facility for Airbus Helicopters. It is adjacent to

. ** Grand Prairie also serves as the Airbus Helicopters Training facility for North America with classrooms and full-motion simulators. *

Columbus, Mississippi Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, Mississippi, Lowndes County, on the eastern border of Mississippi, United States, located primarily east, but also north and northeast of the Tombigbee River, which is also part of the ...

** The recently constructed Columbus plant handles repairs, upgrades and customizations of all Airbus Helicopters models. It is located on the Golden Triangle Regional Airport. ** The Columbus facility is also the home of the UH-72A Lakota (military EC145), the new Army helicopter. **Beginning in 2014, Airbus Helicopters will upgrade the Columbus Plant to a final assembly and test site for AS350 helicopters. The plant plans to produce up to 60 additional AS350 helicopters annually by 2016.Eurocopter Upgrades U.S. Production Operations
” Aviation International News Online, October 2013.

References

External links

{{Portal, Companies, Aviation
Airbus Helicopters

Companies based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex Manufacturing companies based in Texas Helicopter manufacturers of the United States Airbus subsidiaries and divisions Airbus Helicopters Grand Prairie, Texas