Quest is on to bring new helicopter type to UAE

Quest Helicopters unveiled the first member of what it hopes will be an innovative new family of rotorcraft at the Dubai Airshow.

Quest Helicopters is headquartered in Dubai and is a subsidiary of Quest Investments, the holding company of the UAE’s al-Ansari family.

The company has teamed with Ukraine’s Aerovortex to produce a new helicopter design, known as the Quest AVQ, at a facility that it hopes to build in the emirate of Umm Al Quwain. This will be the first privately-funded civil helicopter to be built in the Middle East.

Though a new design, the Quest AVQ’s lineage can be traced back to the Russia Ukraine Maslova Ru-Mas 240 and A-245 ‘Guppy’ helicopter designs, the latter of which was shown in mock-up form at the MAKS airshow in Moscow in 2009.

The team behind the Quest AVQ (formerly known as ‘Project Q’) aims to combine advanced rotorcraft technologies and long-life airframes engineered for robust operations from the former USSR with Western refinements and with a host of new technologies being developed in-house.

Quest is committed to bringing new technology into the UAE. It has already signed an MOU with Abu Dhabi’s Higher College of Technology and Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training and the Ukraine’s Academy of Science to invest in and develop specialist research into climate, health, and other technological advances. Yousuf Al Ansari, CEO of the new Quest Helicopters said: “We want to bring in the latest technology that will help create value to the overall aviation industry in the region and create employment for young Emiratis.”

The AVQ programme is “all about the technology”, according to Mike Creed, Quest’s commercial and deputy project director, who sees a place for licensing the developed technologies to others, as well as using them in Quest’s own helicopters. “We will have something quite relevant to sell to the world.”

The key technologies being developed under the programme include a quadruplex fly-by-wire primary flight control system, a unique ‘ejectable’ cabin, which will serve as an escape capsule in the event of any catastrophic failure, telemetry downlinks for progressive maintenance monitoring, and an inline tandem rotor system. The aircraft will also have a state-of-the-art avionics system, with touchscreen multi-function displays.

The control system is innovative. It includes a conventional ‘collective’, but the cyclic is a modern sidestick controller, as used in the F-16 and the latest Airbus airliners. Pitch control rods are hidden inside hollow drive shafts to minimise drag. The fly-by-wire system is being designed by the EKRAN company from Kiev, which has already designed similar control systems for fixed-wing Antonov civil aircraft. Quest’s designers spent two years evaluating fly-by-wire systems before selecting EKRAN.

The ejectable cabin (one of the features apparently inherited from the Maslova designs) features four solid propellant boosters and recovery parachutes, while the remainder of the airframe also has a separate recovery ‘chute.

The company has calculated that, in the event of a catastrophic failure, passengers would experience forces of about 4g for 0.5 seconds and then 2g for another 1.5 seconds – modest compared with conventional fighter pilot ejection. The Quest AVQ ejection process commences with a detachment and then a progressive acceleration of the capsule cabin in a forward trajectory.

Modelling has already convinced the company that the system will provide a real enhancement to survivability. Full-scale live testing will follow imminently. The challenge will lie in achieving certification, Creed believes, though he pointed out that larger versions of the AVQ, including the ten-seat launch model, would not actually feature the ejectable cabin concept.

The Quest AVQ will feature what the company describes as a unique pro-active real-time maintenance monitoring system, utilising telemetry downlinks to provide a preventative, on-condition maintenance philosophy.

Even the AVQ’s configuration is innovative for an aircraft in its class, using an inline contra rotating tandem rotor system – making the aircraft, to all intents and purposes, a mini Chinook – and removing the need for a vulnerable and inefficient tail rotor system to counteract main rotor torque.

The AVQ will be powered by a twin turboshaft powerplant, probably consisting of a pair of Progress DB/Motor Sich Ukraine Al-450M engines with FADEC, or a new derivative of these engines, and offering between 465 and 480shp.

These will be sufficient to allow the helicopter to operate even when outside air temperatures reach 55°C. But there are believed to be other options. “Other, Western, engine manufacturers are courting us,” Creed revealed.

The company hopes to build 20 helicopters per year from 2014, rising to 40 in the third year and to be capable of producing 50 aircraft annually by fourth or fifth year. Chairman Mahmood Al Ansari has already committed up to Dh 183 million ($50 million) for the first phase of the programme.

While $50 million may seem a small amount for the development of a new helicopter, Quest has been quick to point out that R&D can be carried out in the Ukraine in a “very cost-effective environment”, and added that prototype number 1 is already half constructed, with costs going exactly to plan.

Designed by Volodymyr Udovenko, previously responsible for the Aerokopter AK 1-3 Sanka and Cadet KT-112 Angel light helicopters, the Quest AVQ prototype will be designed, built and flight-tested at Kharkov in the Ukraine from 2013, with production aircraft then undergoing assembly at the new facility in Umm Al Quwain from 2014.

Land for the new facility has already been acquired in the form of a 40,000sqm plot and the company expects to ‘break ground’ for the new buildings in 2013. These will consist of a high-tech production facility, with an adjoining showroom and helipads.

The company looked at various locations around the UAE, including the aerospace cluster in Al Ain. But Umm Al Quwain was felt to be ideal for the first phase. Quest did not want to be based at an existing airport, where all sorts of restrictions could have been imposed on operational flying, the supply of parts, and even security. The location chosen – a bare sand site – lies in a triangle of unrestricted airspace between Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah, and is well suited to experimental and trials flying.

The new helicopter will be certificated in the UAE and the Ukraine, with a proposed bilateral agreement between the Ukraine and EASA ensuring that parallel European certification will also be achieved.

The company said it would guarantee a price of $2.95 million for the first 20 helicopters. It is not predicting over-ambitious order totals, and for every order taken the customer will be expected to put down $250,000 as a deposit.

The boxy looking AVQ shown at Dubai Airshow in mock-up form was representative only of the initial prototype/technology demonstrator, and was shown as a four-seater. In this form, the aircraft was described as having a 4,960lb (2,250kg) maximum take-off weight, a maximum speed of 185mph (295km/h), a 9,840ft (3,000m) hover ceiling and a 435nm (700km) range.

The actual production aircraft is likely to be larger, with more seats, and is expected to look more modern and more streamlined, as well as offering a competitive price, excellent performance characteristics, good load-carrying capability and new technologies.

There will be a range of versions for different roles, with different sized cabins and a state-of-the-art interior with tailored quick-change cabin options.

Quest hopes to win significant orders from parapublic (police, emergency medical service and border security) and commercial operators, including those specialising in VIP, offshore and utility missions, though the company expects initial interest to be strongest from utility operators, especially those in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, China, Africa and India, which it views as ‘primary markets’.

The VIP version will feature an interior designed by UK firm Design Q, shown in mock-up form at Dubai.