Robinson Helicopter Company has received FAA certification for its R66 Turbine Newscopter. The turnkey R66 ENG (Electronic News Gathering) helicopter is the ideal solution for television news feeds requiring a reliable, economical, turbine-powered helicopter with a state-of-the-art news delivery system.
The four-position R66 Newscopter is powered by the Rolls Royce RR300 turboshaft engine. It also offers greater capacity and increased altitude performance. The standard R66 ENG package includes a five-axis gyros stabilized gimbal that houses an Ikegami HD camera and a 22-to-1 HD Canon lens. For tighter coverage, an optional gimbal that houses Canon’s camera and lens from 40 to 1 is available.
Also standard are the Garmin’s G500H PFD / MFD system, the Garmin GTN 650 browser, three HD micro cameras, two seven-inch monitors and two digital audio controllers from Geneva. In the rear compartment, the camera controls are located on the center and the laptop console. The images are displayed on multiple HD monitors.
A multitude of options are available including a HeliSAS autopilot and air conditioning. On July 24, Robinson delivered the first production R66 Newscopter to his former distributor Robinson SKY Helicopters of Dallas, Texas. SKY, a leading ENG service provider, operates twelve R44 Newscopters.
“The addition of the R66 Newscopter allows us to provide our customers (including those at high altitude) with long-range camera performance and dual-channel simultaneous transport flows. This means that we can send two different video streams into a microwave path for the stations that share the helicopter, “said Ken Pyatt, CEO of SKY Helicopters.The R66 Turbine Newscopter meets the latest FAA crash regulations and costs 1 US $ 307,000.