Yunnan Jingcheng Group Will Be The First Company In China To Take Delivery

Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. has announced that the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has issued a validation type certificate for the S-76D aircraft, allowing Sikorsky to begin delivering the commercial helicopter to customers in China. The announcement was made at the 2014 Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition. Sikorsky is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp.

The S-76D is the latest S-76 model to be validated by CAAC having been preceded by the S-76A and S-76C helicopters More than 30 Sikorsky S-76 aircraft currently operate in China.

Yunnan Jingcheng Group will be the first company in China to take delivery of an S-76D helicopter. The company contracted for a new S-76D in 2012 and is scheduled to receive the aircraft this month. Jingcheng already flies an S-92 helicopter for use in transporting corporate and government VIPs.

The S-76D helicopter has quickly proven popular with customers, with a current backlog exceeding $650 million. Sikorsky has delivered more than 800 S-76 helicopters to customers globally since 1979, contributing daily to a growing 6.4 million-plus fleet flight hours total.

The S-76D helicopter's baseline equipment includes Pratt & Whitney Canada PW210S engines; an advanced THALES TopDeck integrated avionics system and four-axis autopilot; Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) incorporated into fleet monitoring and analysis; active vibration control; and all-composite main rotor blades.

(Image provided by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation)

FMI: www.sikorsky.com