Hélicoptères Guimbal has revealed the first images of the long-awaited “big sibling” for its popular two-seater Cabri G2 — known as the “Grand Cabri” G5.
The G5 is a clean-sheet-design five-seat aircraft that builds on the success of the G2, with the aim of delivering a true multimission aircraft that delivers high performance and offers great versatility.
Powered by a 450-shp Safran Arrius 2D — representing another new airframer partnership for the engine manufacturer — the G5 has been in development under wraps for a number of years.
Speaking to media about the development of the aircraft ahead of its official launch at Verticon, Bruno Guimbal, president of Hélicoptères Guimbal, said people have been asking him about creating a bigger version of the G2 ever since that aircraft’s first delivery.
“We started to think about the Grand Cabri many years ago, and we had time to refine a strategy about it, and we went through different options,” he said. “And now I’m here to introduce what all these options became.”
He said customers were clear that a bigger aircraft would need to retain the “Cabri DNA” — and wanted “something to bridge between, roughly speaking, the Cabri [G2] and the Ecureuil [AStar] H125.”
The Cabri G2 was certified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in 2007, and began operations in North America following approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 10 years ago.
Over the years, Hélicoptères Guimbal has delivered over 400 G2s to customers around the world, with the type recording 7 million flight hours.
The aircraft has proven hugely popular thanks to its sophisticated design, featuring a Fenestron tail rotor, a three-bladed high-inertia main rotor, and clean panel layout in the cockpit.
“I’m part of the Fenestron fan group from very early, and I believe in the Fenestron,” said Guimbal. “I still believe in it as a concept, and we have excellent results with the Fenestron today. . . . So the G5 will have a Fenestron on for the same reason.”
Feedback from customers was clear that the G5 had to have a multi-bladed rotor, and it has one more blade than the G2.
“The Cabri main rotor is a big success, and the G5 is building on the G2 rotor,” said Guimbal. “Except that It has four blades and is bigger — it will be a high strength composite rotor, all elastomerics.”
It will be offered with Garmin G500H avionics — the same as in the G2 — as well as Hélicoptères Guimbal’s own vehicle management system.
Guimbal said the safety performance of the G2 has been one of its main selling points over the years, describing it as representing a significant leap in “active safety and passive safety.”
By the former, he referred to the aircraft’s performance in training for autorotations and its behavior in turbulence. In terms of passive safety, he pointed to its crashworthy seats — which he claimed have saved three lives — structure, and fuel system.
The G5 will emulate this focus on safety.
A second priority in the design has been to limit noise emissions. “I want the G5 to be the quietest helicopter ever — period,” said Guimbal. “This is what we have aimed for in the design.”
The choice of four-blades for the main rotor helps in this regard.
“There is a . . . proverb in the helicopter business: the more blades, the less vibration and the less noise,” said Guimbal. “In terms of engineering, it is mostly an affair of making strong blades with high aspect ratio.”
A multimission aircraft
While 85 percent of the operations performed by Cabri G2s are training flights, the G5 is being developed as a truly multimission aircraft.
“It will be a five-seat [aircraft] in a high density configuration, will be a very efficient four-seat [aircraft] for military use or for VIP use . . . but the versatility, the high mission capability, is the main element,” said Guimbal.
Describing it as “a mini H125,” he said he hoped to emulate the AStar’s versatility and performance capabilities — particularly at high altitudes.
The cabin has been designed with mission versatility and modularity in mind.
“You can reconfigure the seat arrangement, which is, for a light helicopter, absolutely unique,” said Guimbal. “The cabin will be perfectly suited for video camera operation or for police operation, thanks to the door arrangement and to the seating arrangement.”
It will be possible to fly the G5 from either the left seat or right seat, while Guimbal said his team has spent “significant energy” on making sure the is modern and elegant.
The fuselage has been designed for compactness, while maintaining a spacious feel inside the cabin.
Referring to the selection of the Arrius engine, Guimbal said it was “a good engine, powerful model, [and] not too expensive for a turbine.”
“We are very proud to have attracted Safran’s trust,” he said. “It’s a big success to me in the G5 program.”
Guimbal is remaining tight-lipped as to his ambition for a timeline for the aircraft’s development, certification and delivery — but said his team is “working very, very intensively” on the program.
He did, however, share that the overall concept has been frozen “for some time,” including the component and main sub component specifications.
“The main rotor is completely designed, and we are now entering negotiation with the component suppliers,” said Guimbal. The company has also produced a large part of the tooling it requires to develop the aircraft.
““I am in the critical phase where I don’t know the weight of a prototype, but I think of it every minute,” he said.
As for the response he is expecting at Verticon, Guimbal said he believed the industry will welcome the move to a family concept — and the creation of a Guimbal bridge to larger aircraft.
“For several years, when we go to HAI [VAI Verticon], our distributors say, ‘When are you disclosing the G5 program?” he said. “The existence of the G5 . . . is something important, and this is why we decided to disclose it today.”
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