Nicola_M

BK117 B-1 CN 7009 D-HBKK This aircraft was the 9th machine off the Donauworth production line in 1984 and was pressed into service as another factory demonstrator, as seen at Hannover on 20th May 1984 in the photos enclosed with the livery. Now one of the ADAC fleet. File located in file library here: http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php/files/category/20-helicopters/

BK117 C-1 CN 7007 D-HBUR This aircraft was the 7th machine off the Donauworth production line, and was immediately upgraded to B-1 status and registered as D-HBKI and then D-HXXL (http://forums.x-pilo...hp?topic=2294.0). It has had a chequered history, having been registered since in France and Mexico, before being leased into the SAR market in Italy. It got its unique paint scheme after Glasurit commissioned celebrated German painter/designer Walter Maurer in 2000 to come up with the design it now wears, which he named "Flying Colors." http://www.surfacefi...-Paints-to-0001 Interestingly, 7007 was the C-1 testbed, fitted with the new Turbomeca Arriel-1-E turbine on 6th April 1990, going on to icing tests in Vienna in February/March 1991, and high temperature testing in July 1991, the LBA C-1 Type Certification being awarded on the 20th October 1992. updated 01Jun11 - added updated interior, bear paws removed. updated 29Oct11 - corrected an error on the top and bottom edges of the inner fin surfaces. File located in file library here: http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php/files/category/20-helicopters/

BK117 C/N 7001 D-HBKC This is the livery of D-HBKC, construction number c/n 7001, the first production machine off the Donauworth line in 1982. It was test flown by chief-test pilot Siegfried Hoffmann and flight-test engineer Walter Sinn on 23rd April 1982 in Ottobrunn. For a time it was the factory demonstrator before changing ownership within Germany a number of times. Finally it was bought by Transportes Aéreos Pegaso in Mexico, where it remains in use today. Oddly, in addition to owning the first BK117 off the production line, Pegaso also bought the last BK117 made, XA-UBP c/n 7555 in 2004. They still own and operate both. UPDATE: 24 May 2011, Livery png now modified so that bear paws are now correctly omitted for this particular aircraft. For convenience you can load up the Radome or Non-Radome BK117 but it will be the same aircraft now with the bear paws deleted. File located in file library here: http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php/files/category/20-helicopters/

In total, 443 BK117s were made; 329 (and two prototypes) by MBB at Donauworth, 111 (and one prototype) by Kawasaki in Japan. Japanese Production: BK117 A-1 to C-1: C/N 1001-1112 = 111 + P-3 Prototype German Production: BK117 A-1 to B-2: C/N 7001-7275 = 274 BK117 C-1: C/N 7500-7555 = 55 + P-2 Prototype + S-01 Pre-production Prototype Although the vast majority have ended up as part of various fleets all painted the same, such as DRF or ADAC, a few of these began life in a factory paint scheme before being sold. In many cases MBB exhibited these factory schemes at various airshows and trade fairs, giving a chance for these now-forgotten paint schemes to be seen before they were quickly repainted in nondescript colours prior to delivery to the customer. Due to the high cost of buying the BK117 - or indeed any helicopter - very few have ended up in private hands, so the chance of finding many individual paint schemes becomes smaller still. Worthy of note is that in the 1980s MBB were quick to use the services of fêted designers and painters to customise selected BK117s to use as promotional items. Walter Maurer repainted c/n 7007 in the highly visual scheme seen within these pages, and Luigi Colani was contracted to customise c/n 7017 in the now-famous "Starship" livery. The latter was created to commemorate the passing of Halley's Comet in 1986. Coincidentally, at that time MBB was advertising the BK117's spacious cabin under the slogan "The BK117 Space Ship" which prompted one distributor to have unofficial "Space Ship" decals made up for the machines they sold. What this means is that while the huge majority of the BK117s are today in plain company colours, a few of them started out with individual and pleasing colour schemes and it is these that I hope to have represented in these pages. For anyone wondering what the variants are: BK117 A-1 Fitted with Lycoming LTS 101-650B-1 turbines. BK117 A-3 Larger tail rotor, Yaw CSAS, SPAS, take-off weight increased to 3,200 kg (7,055 lb). BK117 A-4 Increased transmission limits, improved tail rotor head. BK117 B-1 Fitted with LTS 101-750B-1 turbines, increased performance, and 140 kg (309 lb) increase in payload. BK117 B-2 Fitted with Allied Signal Lycoming LTS101-750B-1 turbines, new tail rotor blades. Max Gross Weight increased to 3,350 kg BK117 C-1 Fitted with Turbomeca Arriel 1E/1E2 turbines. BK117 850D-2 Fitted with Honeywell LTS 101-850B-2 turbines, improving OEI and Cat A performance. I have been putting together an up-to-date database of accounted-for BK117s, and this can be found here: (updated 31August2011) MBB BK117 Production List.doc

Thank you to Cameron for kindly allowing me to provide my BK117 liveries, and I hope they come up to expectations. I concentrate on individual aircraft, and particular paintjobs in that aircraft's history. For this reason I don't do liveries like ADAC or DRF, as they are already well-represented on many forums. This means that unusual, or long-lost factory paintschemes can once again take to the skies. They are in WinRar .zip format and contain the livery folder, a ReadMe and photos showing the original livery for each. Just copy the aircraft folder eg "CN 7047 D-HBMV" into xplane/aircraft/helicopters/BK117/liveries This is a one-stop source for all things relevant to Nils's BK117. PLEASE NOTE: ALL FILES NOW LOCATED IN THE FILE LIBRARY. Lastly, inevitably many of these liveries will be medevac aircraft. I will not create liveries of aircraft which have crashed, in which their crews died. There have been fifteen such BK117 crashes, eight alone in the US. Please spare a thought for those crews who are no longer with us, whatever helicopter they flew in. http://www.alecbuck....051123235208353 regards Nicola

I liked that. It was almost like the Grumman attempt at an invisible stealth fighter, except someone forgot that it's meant to be wholly invisible...

Look on the bright side, at least postponements with the Saab are realistic and only in weeks, not months/years like something else (clue: xp10)

I spent hours trying to land on this tiny jetty. Pointless, but as it's one you don't sink through, I was absolutely determined. It's part of the Nuremburg scenery by Fren.

Thanks for the welcome guys. I'm not discussing it but whatever it was, it just cost the org a paying customer. Anyway, I'd rather have a quality audience for my work than just numbers.

Jack, thanks for the welcome. Cameron, thanks for the offer. I've pm'd you. Many may already have seen them, but here's a taster for those who haven't. regards Nic ps I wish I'd found here a lot sooner. Nice atmosphere.

Great, I'll get stuck into putting them up onto datafilehost with the links and screenshots here in the next day.

I've left the org and pulled all my work off there. Anyone want them posted/linked here?