During this year’s Heli-Expo conference in Dallas, Texas, Hélicoptères Guimbal president Bruno Guimbal shared numerous company updates, including improvements made to the two-seat Cabri G2 helicopter.
Guimbal said the company saw the last two years as an opportunity to pursue new developments on the Cabri G2 — the first being a new cockpit that Guimbal began developing two-and-a-half years ago. The company was able to achieve certification during the pandemic period, Guimbal said, despite a lack of EASA and FAA test pilots. Guimbal has already delivered a Cabri G2 equipped with the new-generation cockpit to a customer in the U.S.
“We managed to certify this cockpit during these low times,” added Guimbal. “And now we are happy to deliver it and we are happy to . . . meet customer expectations.”
Also new to the Cabri G2 is what Guimbal referred to as a “generic payload support,” which is essentially a removable window on the nose of the helicopter that features a support mechanism that can carry camera, sensor, or lidar equipment. The window can be changed in just 10 minutes, and the support mechanism is fully certified for any payload up to the maximum capability of the helicopter. Guimbal has taken care of all test flights, so “the customer could take the helicopter and immediately certify any payload without any test flight,” said Guimbal.
Guimbal also used the pandemic period as an opportunity to certify the air conditioning on the Cabri G2.
When asked if the company is looking to develop a four-seat helicopter, Guimbal acknowledged that a bigger helicopter with “Cabri characteristics” is something that customers have requested for a long time, and “the four-seater is the obvious follow-on of a Cabri.” He confirmed that Guimbal is currently refining its “bigger helicopter program,” but it’s going to take time.
“We are a small company developing a bigger helicopter,” said Guimbal, “and we cannot miss the target.”
He noted that the company is healthy financially, and “we are not going to jeopardize that” to save time developing a four-seat helicopter.
Until recently, Hélicoptères Guimbal “was a company with investors,” though Guimbal owned a majority stake. Now, the company is fully independent – which Guimbal said has been a huge achievement in terms of revenue.
“In the last five years, we did not manage to fully develop a bigger helicopter, but we managed to buy back all our investors,” he said.
Regarding the four-seat helicopter program, Guimbal stressed that the intention is not to compete with Robinson Helicopter Company, which manufacturers the two-seat R22, four-seat R44 Raven, and the five-seat R66 Turbine.
“With the existing Robinson market, there is room for both of us,” said Guimbal.
