Airbus Hands Canada Its First H135 Trainer Helicopter — Named for a D-Day Beach

Airbus has delivered Canada’s first H135 helicopter trainer, kicking off a 19-aircraft fleet named for the beach where Canadian troops stormed ashore on D-Day.

Airbus Helicopters delivered the first H135 trainer to the Royal Canadian Air Force on Wednesday, launching the CT-153 Juno fleet that will modernize the country’s rotary-wing pilot training.

The handover marks the first rotary-wing delivery under Canada’s Future Aircrew Training program, a C$11.2 billion ($8.1 billion), 25-year effort to overhaul how the air force trains pilots, air combat systems officers and airborne electronic sensor operators across five new aircraft fleets.

The light, twin-engine helicopter was completed and delivered from Airbus’ completion center in Fort Erie, where it received Canada-specific modifications to its avionics and communications systems, along with a blue-and-yellow livery the program calls its “Reflect Forward” scheme — yellow for historical training associations, dark blue for the modern trainer color.

The aircraft, identified as 153201, was unveiled at the CANSEC defense trade show in Ottawa in May before being ferried to 15 Wing in Southport, Manitoba, where the government granted final acceptance and transferred ownership to the air force, according to SkyAlyne, the company that manages the training program.

“This first delivery is an important step forward for the Future Aircrew Training program and the next generation of Royal Canadian Air Force pilots, and it highlights the depth of capability being delivered here in Canada,” said Dwayne Charette, president of Airbus Helicopters in Canada.

Kevin Lemke, SkyAlyne’s general manager, said the handover reflected cooperation among the company, Airbus, the air force, and other industry partners.

“The CT-153 Juno will provide future RCAF pilots with a modern, mission-ready training platform designed to support the operational demands of tomorrow’s air force,” Lemke said.

The CT-153 designation honors Juno Beach, the 8-kilometer stretch of Normandy coastline where Canadian troops landed on D-Day in 1944.

Ottawa plans to field 19 H135s for rotary-wing flight instruction, with the remaining aircraft arriving through 2028, Airbus said. The helicopters will replace the CH-139 Jet Ranger and CT-146 — the Bell 206 and Bell 412 helicopters used in current rotary-wing training at 3 Canadian Forces Flying Training School, based at 15 Wing in Southport.

The rotary-wing trainer is one piece of a larger overhaul. The Future Aircrew Training program covers 71 aircraft across five fleets: the Grob G120TP for basic flying training, the Pilatus PC-21 for advanced fixed-wing instruction, the Beechcraft King Air 260 for multi-engine training, the De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 for airborne-systems training, and the H135 for rotary-wing instruction.

SkyAlyne, a joint venture between CAE and KF Aerospace, runs the program under a 25-year contract the Canadian government awarded on May 28, 2024, following a competition that traces back to industry consultations more than a decade earlier. KF Aerospace has managed Contracted Flying Training and Support at the Southport base since 2005.

France Hébert, SkyAlyne’s president, said the program moved from contract signing to first helicopter delivery in 18 months.

“The FAcT program is a complete revitalization of the RCAF’s aircrew training capability, and SkyAlyne is immensely proud to be working alongside outstanding partners like Airbus Helicopters Canada to deliver this sovereign capability to the RCAF,” Hébert said.

The H135 is built around Airbus’ Helionix avionics suite, which the manufacturer says provides a 4-axis autopilot, flight-envelope protection, and synthetic vision. Airbus’ published specifications for the H135 list a maximum takeoff weight of 2,980 kilograms, a range of 633 kilometers with a standard fuel tank, and a maximum speed of 252 kilometers per hour. The Royal Canadian Air Force’s own aircraft page lists slightly different figures for the CT-153 — a top speed of 251 kilometers per hour and a range of 631 kilometers. The trade publication Vertical reported that Canada’s helicopters are powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW206B3 engines, a detail not specified on the air force’s page.

The Royal Canadian Air Force joins 12 other militaries that fly the H135 as a trainer, including the UK Royal Air Force, the Royal Australian Army, the German army, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, the Royal Moroccan Air Force and all three branches of Spain’s armed forces, Airbus said. The manufacturer says it has delivered more than 1,600 H135-family helicopters to more than 325 operators worldwide, logging more than 8 million flight hours, including more than 200 aircraft delivered or ordered for military training that have logged more than 650,000 flight hours in that role.

Airbus established its Fort Erie facility in 1984. The completions center has historically turned out 8 to 12 helicopters a year, a pace the company expects to rise because of the RCAF order and broader demand for twin-engine aircraft. The site holds more than 50 Canadian-developed supplemental type certificates and is one of the few Airbus facilities worldwide with its own upholstery shop. Airbus also opened a 21,000-square-foot parts-distribution center in the Niagara region last year that the company says supports more than 300 jobs.

Three firms that had initially qualified for the FAcT competition — BAE Systems, Airbus Defence and Space, and Lockheed Martin Canada — withdrew before submitting proposals, leaving SkyAlyne and Babcock Leonardo Canada Aircrew Training as the two compliant bidders when the competition concluded in 2023. The new program will consolidate training that had been split among NATO Flying Training in Canada at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan; Contracted Flying Training and Support at Southport; and air combat systems officer and airborne electronic sensor operator instruction run by the air force’s 402 Squadron in Winnipeg.