This Day in Aviation History
June 2nd, 1972
First flight of the Aérospatiale SA 360 Dauphin.
 
The Aérospatiale SA 360 Dauphin was a single-engine French utility helicopter developed as a replacement for Aérospatiale’s Alouette III in the early 1970s and to fill a gap in the company’s product line in the six to ten-seat helicopter category. However, as the new helicopter offered little advantage over its predecessor and thus limited market appeal, production of the SA 360 Dauphin was abandoned after only a few dozen of them had been built.
 
Aérospatiale had also developed a twin-engine derivative, the Dauphin 2, which proved to be quite successful and has been in production for nearly 40 years. Perhaps confusingly, after the merger of Aérospatiale’s helicopter division into Eurocopter in 1992, the Dauphin 2 designation was dropped, and Eurocopter-built Dauphin 2s are simply referred to as “Dauphin”. The retronym “Dauphin 1” is sometimes applied to the original Dauphin….
 
Source:
Wikipedia, Aérospatiale SA 360 Dauphin: http://gstv.us/24jujQo
 
YouTube, Dauphin test run: http://gstv.us/24jtxTK
 
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Photo from: http://gstv.us/24ju6N8
 
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