Last year saw Airbus Helicopters logging encouraging—and hopefully sustainable—levels of growth with net orders rising by just over 8 percent to 393. Announced as part of the European aerospace and defense group's 2023 financial results on February 15, the company said the new business was spread across all its helicopter programs and amounted to a book-to-bill ratio above one, both in terms of units and value.

Revenues for the division were 6 percent up at €2.7 billion ($2.9 billion). More impressively, its earnings showed the highest rate of increase among all Airbus business units, climbing by 19 percent to €307 million.

As with much of the rest of the rotorcraft industry, Airbus continues to face production and customer support challenges resulting from pinch-points in its complex supply chain. But this hasn't discouraged it from implementing new technologies and performance improvements right across its product family.

For instance, the latest innovation for the H130 helicopter will see a new three-axis autopilot introduced. This is now being developed with Garmin and should be certified in 2025, at which point it will be available for retrofit under an STC and as an option for new aircraft. This will protect pilots throughout all stages of flight and include a recovery mode.