A couple of interesting things I recently found out about French designed helicopters ;
Eurocopter is a French company with manufacturing plants in France , Germany and Spain and they produce the Super Puma / Panther / Couger along with the NH90 (joint venture) and the UH-72 Lakota (US. Army's newest light utility helo) . Also the HAP Tigre
I recently won off ebay a Super Puma and Couger from the same seller and checking through my stash of Helicopter kits , I already have some UH-72's , HAP Tigre , NH90 , HH/MH-65 Dolphins .
Something I didn't know was that on Eurocopter helicopters designed and built in France the Main Rotor turns clockwise when viewed from above , in common with rotorcraft deriving from Russia . Eurocopter products developed in Germany have the Main Rotor which turns counter-clockwise when viewed from above in common with American Helicopters .
This may not interest too many other people but as a rotor-head I thought it was valuable info and probably explains why Hobby Boss (China) molded their main rotors going in the wrong direction on their UH-34 kit ; Either the Russian influence or perhaps the fact that Hobby Boss also make a lot of Russian Helicopter kits and no body picked up on the difference .
Last night I glued the wings on my previously started Nord 2501 Noratlas , Israeli version . I'm hoping to have this one finished by the July 14 start date and use her as insperation for the French Noratlas build from the same 1956 Suez campaign . With a bit of luck and a lot more concentration on my part , I'm hopfull that the IDF 2nd Noratlas build won't suddenly become airborne and fly out of my hands and for a very brief 1.5 seconds and gracefully glide through the air before hitting the concrete driveway . The worst part about that maiden flight was I had just finished the build and went outside to take some photo's out in the sun light .
Anyway I look forward to the HSS-1 helicopter and Noratlas French transport builds .
John .