Idea #517 – Looking at a show of a french Tigre helicoptere
The first French-German discussions about the armed “Tigre” helicoptere took place in 1975. In 1984, the German and French governments defined their demand for a multifunction helicopter for the battlefield. The reserved companies were the Aerospace industry and MBB who worked in cooperation and the mass production began in 2002.
The helicopter Tiger is equipped with a 13 meters in diameter rotor, quadriblade and motorized by two turbines MTR 390 of 1 285 ch of power each. Thanks to a completely composite materials structure, the helicoptere is very light and handier. The weight of the Tiger is so 40 % lower than that of AH-64 Apache which served as reference during the conception of the Tiger. The excellent maneuverability allows it to make a looping, to move cleverly through the various theaters of operation, in particular the mountains. The Tiger can also move in reverse at the speed of 70 kph, or in side translation. The Tiger reaches a speed of the 315 kph, 370 kph in dive in its HAD version, with a 800 km autonomy without additional reservoir.
As on most of the armed helicopters, pilot and leader pilot are placed the one behind the other one, what allows to reduce the width of the device to 1,1 m and thus its vulnerability in the enemy frontal shootings. The leader pilot is placed behind the device.
The first deployment in operations of the Tigre elicopter takes place in 2009, for the benefit of the French Strengths in Afghanistan. Two of these helicopters left Afghanistan having made 4 215 hours of flight, in 600 missions of support and escort, realized in the daytime and at night, and shot more than 19 000 30mm-shells and 420 68mm-rockets…
Where is it?
Paris Air Show, Le Bourget Airport, France