250,000 flight hours for Turbomeca engines powering the helicopters of RTE

Today at the International Paris Air Show, Olivier Andriès, Chairman and CEO of Turbomeca (Safran group) and Régis Magnac, Director of RTE, company in charge of the Electricity Transmission Network (RTE), are celebrating 250,000 flight hours for Turbomeca engines used in helicopter aerial work for surveillance and maintenance of the French electricity transmission network (high and very high voltage).

Turbomeca has been supplying engines for RTE's helicopter fleet for over 50 years, from Artouste to Arriel engines.

The family of Turbomeca Arrius engines relies on a solid experience of more than 2,700
delivered engines, accumulating five million flight hours. Today, it powers the newest
generation single and twin-engine light helicopters.

Turbomeca has been producing 10,000 Arriel engines. The Arriel family flying records total 32 Million flying hours, remaining the most reliable engine in its class.

The fleet of RTE currently comprises 11 helicopters: nine single-engine Ecureuil helicopters equipped with Turbomeca Arriel engines (seven dedicated to power line inspections and two dedicated to pylon erection operations and mountain environment missions), as well as two twin-turbine helicopters equipped with Arrius engines (one Ecureuil for maintenance operations with operators working in human external cargo baskets and one EC 135 for line inspections in Paris area).

The helicopters are used for maintenance and repair inspections on the 100,000 kilometers
of electrical power lines in the RTE network, carried out by 120 collaborators including 13 pilots and 13 mechanics, supported by engineering experts, site managers and linesmen
authorized for aerial work on voltage.

RTE works in close partnership with Turbomeca and its unit specializing in flight tests,
carrying out hundreds of hours of flight tests for RTE. This collaboration made it possible to develop specific equipment for the optimization of human external cargo basket operations on high voltage power lines.

Source: Turbomeca