Helicopter:

The Eurocopter, later Airbus Helicopters AS365 Dauphin, originally known as the Aérospatiale SA 365 Dauphin 2, is a medium-weight multipurpose twin-engine helicopter 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, and since 2014 Eurocopter was renamed Airbus Helicopters. Since entering production in 1975, the type has been in continuous production for more than 40 years, with the last delivery in 2021. The intended successor to the Dauphin is the Airbus Helicopters H160, which entered operational service in 2021.

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 demand 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 Eurocopter EC155.

operational history:

In February 1980, the first series production Dauphin was used to break three separate speed-related world records in separate journeys between Battersea, London, United Kingdom and Issy-les-Moulineaux, Paris, France. In 1985, a new model of the Dauphin, the AS365 F, became the first rotorcraft in the world to fly with flight instruments being displayed in electronic displays, which replaced the traditional instrumentation; this variant was first procured by the Irish Air Corps for SAR operations.

The French Navy operated the Dauphin, in addition to the dedicated military-orientated Panther variant, to conduct various missions such as the Dauphin Service Public which involves various duties from seaborne SAR, maritime monitoring, and responding to distress calls. French Navy Dauphins are commonly deployed on board the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle as well as onboard other vessels of the French Navy and allies; they are fitted with a haul-down Harpoon in order to ease shipboard landings in rough weather

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