AEROSPATIALE/ WESTLAND GAZELLE

Aerospatiale SA 341/342 Gazelle is a modern French multi-task helicopter with a fixed landing gear, in a classic configuration, with a main rotor and a tail rotor on a beam in a fenestron configuration. In the SA 341 version, the drive is provided by a single Turbomeca Astazou IIIA engine with a maximum power of 590 HP. The first prototype flew in 1967 and production started in 1973. The machine is 11.97 meters long, with a rotor diameter of 10.5 meters. Aerospatiale SA 341/342 Gazelle was designed and implemented to the order of the French Army Air Force, which in the second half of the 1960s was looking for a light machine that could replace the SA 318C Alouette II in service. The new machine was created with the participation of the British company Westland. The SA 341/342 Gazelle helicopter took many design solutions from its predecessor, but also brought many new things: first of all, a different structure of the tail boom and other solutions related to the tail rotor. It also received a new rotor, and eventually a completely new engine. In the period 1971-1973, the SA 341 version was produced, and from 1973 the SA 342 version, which received a new power unit and was adapted to operate in dry and desert climates. SA 341/342 Gazelle machines were used in combat, among others: in both wars in the Gulf (1990-1991 and 2003), in the intervention in Djibouti (1991-1992) or in the Serval operation in Mali in 2013.