Aérospatiale Alouette II

Infobox Aircraft
name = SA 313 / SA 318 Alouette II



caption = An Aérospatiale SA 318 BW Alouette II of the German Army
type = Light helicopter
manufacturer = Sud Aviation/Aérospatiale
designer =
first flight = 1955-03-12
introduced = 1957-05-02
retired =
status =
primary user = France
more users = Germany
produced = 1956-1975
number built = 829
unit cost =
variants with their own articles = Aérospatiale Alouette III Aérospatiale Lama

The Alouette II is a light helicopter originally manufactured by Sud Aviation and later Aérospatiale, both of France. The Alouette II was the first production helicopter to use a gas turbine instead of a conventional heavier piston engine.

It was mostly used for military purposes in observation, photography, air/sea rescue, liaison and training but it has also carried anti-tank missiles and homing torpedoes. As a civilian helicopter it was used for casualty evacuation (with two external stretcher panniers), crop-spraying and as a flying crane (with a 500kg external sling load).

Operational history

Although Sud-Est's previous helicopter design, the SE 3120 Alouette, broke helicopter speed and distance records in July 1953, it was too complex an aircraft to market successfully. With the records falling, the French government started showing interest but with their financial backing the state gave an ultimatum that within 2 years a helicopter had to be in production otherwise all activities around rotary wings would cease. SNCASE came up with 7 turbo-engine helicopters designs: X.310A - X.310G. Earlier Joseph Szydlowski, the founder of Turboméca had successfully managed to develop the Artouste, a 260 hp single shaft turbine engine derived from his Orédon turbine. The X.310G design was chosen and together with the Artouste engine was fast tracked towards production as the SE 3130 Alouette II.

The SE 3130, first flew on March 12 1955 and within 3 months a pre-series Alouette II flown by Jean Boulet set a new helicopter altitude record of 8,209 m on June 6 then on June 13 pushed the record even further to 10,984 m.

The Alouette II made the news on July 3 1956 when it became the first helicopter to perform a mountain-rescue by evacuating a mountaineer who had suffered from cardiac arrest at over 4,000 m and again on January 3 1957 the Alouette II was called upon to rescue the crew of a crashed Sikorsky S-58 which was searching for missing mountaineers Jean Vincendon and François Henry on Mont Blanc.

The Alouette II gained its domestic certificate of airworthiness on 2 May 1957.

Production started initially to fulfil orders from the French armed forces and civilian customers. It made military history by being the first helicopter worldwide to be equipped with anti-tank missiles (the Nord SS.11s),"Helicopters at War" - Blitz Editions, Page, 63, ISBN 1 85605 345 8] and by the time production ended in 1975 with over 1500 Alouette II's had been built and in use in over 80 countries including 47 armed forces. It is also licence built in Brazil, Sweden, India and in the United States.

Indian Hindustan Aeronautics Limited license-built SA 315B Lamas, called Cheetahs in Indian service, regularly deployed at 7500 meters (24,600 ft.) to forward observation outposts and air bases of the Indian Air Force in the Himalaya mountain ranges.

Variants

* SE 3130 Alouette II - After 1967 called SA 313B Alouette II
* SE 3131 Gouverneur - VIP version which led up to the Alouette III
* SE 3140 Alouette II - Proposed version, it was going to be powered by a 298 kW (400hp) Turbomeca Turmo II engine. None were ever built.
* HKP 2 Alouette II - Swedish licence version of the SE.3130
* SE 3150 Alouette Astazou - It has a 550 shp Turboméca Astazou IIA shaft turbine (derated to 360 shp) and strengthened transmission system of the Alouette III
* SE 3180 Alouette II - After 1967 called SA 318C Alouette II derived from the SE 3150
* HAL Chetak - Indian licence version of the SE.3180

Operators

;ANG;ARG;AUT: (16);BEL: (39);BEN;flag|Biafra
* few helicopters were used by the Biafran Air Force;BOL;BRA;CAM: (8);CMR;CAF;CHI;CIV: (2);DJI;DOM: (2);ECU;ESA;FIN: (2);FRA: (363);GER: (267);GNB;IND: (over 250 built under license as the HAL Cheetah);IDN: (3);ISR: (4);LAO: (2);LBN: (3);MEX: (2);MAR: (14);NLD: (8);PAK: (12);PER: (6);POR: (7);ROU: (2);SEN;KOR;flag|South Africa|1928
* South African Air Force (7);flag|South Vietnam;SWE: (25);SUI: (30);TOG;TUN: (8);TUR;UK
*Army Air Corps (17) ;ZAI: (3)

pecifications (Alouette II)

Aircraft specifications
plane or copter?=copter
jet or prop?=prop
crew=1
capacity=4 passengers
length main=9.70 m
length alt=31 ft 10 in
span main=10.20 m
span alt=33 ft 6 in
height main=2.75 m
height alt=9 ft 0 in
area main=81.7 m²
area alt=879.4 ft²
empty weight main=895 kg
empty weight alt=1,975 lb
loaded weight main=
loaded weight alt=
max takeoff weight main=1,600 kg
max takeoff weight alt=3,525 lb

engine (prop)=Turboméca Artouste IIC6
type of prop=turboshaft
number of props=1
power main=410 kW
power alt=550 hp
max speed main=185 km/h
max speed alt=99.9 knots, 115 mph
range main=565 km
range alt=305 nm, 350 mi
ceiling main=2,250 m
ceiling alt=7,380 ft
climb rate main=4.2 m/s
climb rate alt=825 ft/min
loading main=
loading alt=
power/mass main=
power/mass alt=

ee also

Aircontent
related=
* Aérospatiale Alouette III
* Aérospatiale Lama

similar aircraft=

lists=
* List of civil aircraft
* List of helicopters
* List of utility aircraft

References