At noon Sunday, during the 2003 Heli-Expo, Eurocopter "joined with the world helicopter community to celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of the HH-65 Helicopter in service with the United States Coast Guard." More specifically, they were celebrating the recent milestone of 750,000 flight hours accumulated by the HH-65 fleet since first going into operational use in 1984.

Representing the United States Coast Guard at this ceremony were senior level officers from the Aviation Operations and Aeronautical Engineering communities. Eurocopter notes that it is extremely proud of the partnership relationship forged with the US Coast Guard in both the support of and the development of a future evolution vision for this remarkable aircraft. Quite a number of people were present to honor the men and women of the United States Coast Guard and to celebrate the contributions of the HH-65 helicopter to meeting the Coast Guard's service motto, Semper Paratus, Always Ready.

The twin engine HH65 has a rotor diameter of 39’ 2", a height of 13’ and a length of 44’ 5". It has a max gross weight of 9,200 pounds, an empty weight of 6,092 pounds and is powerred by the Lycoming LTS-101-750B-2 Gas Turbine. Currently the USCG has some 80 operational aircraft with another 14 in storage or serving as support aircraft.

Eurocopter is a wholly-owned subsidiary of EADS.

FMI: www.eurocopterusa.com, www.uscg.mil