Turbine Helicopters For Lease

About Turbine Helicopters

Most modern helicopters use gas-turbine engines, which are considered more reliable, more powerful, and less complex than piston engines. Turbines are also lighter and typically produce less vibration than their piston-driven counterparts. The turboshaft engines used in helicopters are similar to a turboprop airplane’s motor, although their shaft spins overhead rotors instead of a forward-facing propeller.

Broad Variety

The cost of a turbine-powered helicopter on Controller.com can range from less than $130,000 to $8.5 million or more. The site has everything from brand-new models in current production to vintage ‘copters from the early 1960s.

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Bell 206B III Turbine Helicopter

Turbine helicopters may come with as few as two seats, while larger models such as the MIL MI-8MTV-1 may be outfitted with seating for as many as 36. Total time can range from less than 100 hours on a gently used late-model craft to 20,000 or even 30,000 hours on a well-maintained workhorse.

History

The concept for helicopters dates to a 400 B.C.-era Chinese book that provided details for how to construct a “flying top” helicopter-like toy. Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, and other notable inventors also offered helicopter-like concepts and designs over the years.

A French bicycle maker, Paul Cornu, achieved the first manned free flight in a rotary-winged aircraft on November 13, 1907 in Coquainvilliers near Lisieux. The twin-rotor “Flying Bicycle” he designed and built was somewhat impractical, but it did hover a foot or more off the ground for about 20 seconds. Later, Russian-born Igor Sikorsky designed the first working helicopter and submitted a U.S. patent for it in 1931. He first flew his VS-300 on September 14, 1939, at Stratford, Connecticut.

American Charles Kaman is credited with constructing the first turbine-powered helicopter, the K-225. Powered by a Boeing B502-2 engine, it underwent its first test flight on December 11, 1951, in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Three years later, a modified Kaman HTK-1 became the first twin-turbine helicopter to take flight. The Alouette II from Sud-Est (later known as “Sud Aviation”) became the first turbine-powered helicopter to go into production in 1956.

Find The Right Turbine Helicopter

Look for new and pre-owned turbine helicopters for sale on Controller.com (in both the Turbine Helicopters and Turbine Military Aircraft categories) from manufacturers including Agusta, Airbus, Bell, Eurocopter, McDonnell Douglas, Robinson, and Sikorsky.