Aston Martin turns flight-ready with Airbus

The ACH130 Aston Martin Edition, the first offering from the recently-announced partnership between Aston Martin Lagonda and Airbus Corporate Helicopters, was revealed today at Courchevel in the French Alps.

This special edition of the ACH130 helicopter comes equipped with a range of four interior and exterior designs generated by Aston Martin. The British carmaker says it will “delight helicopter owners and pilots who appreciate the pleasures of possessing and driving high performance bespoke luxury cars.”

The aeronautical designers at Airbus Corporate Helicopters (ACH) and the automotive designers at Aston Martin have worked closely together for over a year, marrying ACH’s key values of excellence, quality and service with Aston Martin’s commitment to beauty, handcrafting and automotive art to bring a new level of aesthetics and rigorous attention to detail to the helicopter market.

Available in four external liveries with complementary interiors, the helicopters are embellished with Aston Martin signature elements, starting with the iconic Aston Martin wings, which are embossed onto luxury leather features, tastefully positioned throughout the cabin.

The Stirling Green-themed external scheme, which is already flying on the first aircraft, features a painted gradient, which fades down into Jet Black on the underside of the helicopter with Skyfall Silver around the cowlings. Further external liveries are available with other Aston Martin paint colours including Xenon Grey, Arizona or Ultramarine Black exteriors.

The inside story

Inside, the automotive-inspired cabin, which offers a higher level of comfort, is trimmed in Pure Black ultra-suede with a palette of selectable leathers comprising Oxford Tan, Pure Black, Cormorant and Ivory.

On the rear of the front seats the same brogue detailing that is found in a DB11 runs down the centre of the seat and the doors have been trimmed with leather to provide passengers with comfortable touch points during their flight. By using materials from the Aston Martin automotive palette the interior of this special edition of the ACH130 sits in harmony with the interior of Aston Martin sports cars.

Each of these special edition helicopters will have a plaque included on the instrument panel which shows the partnership logos, the edition number and the owner’s name, should they wish to have it included.

Aston Martin Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, Marek Reichman, said: “We have our own set of automotive design principles but in recent years we have been learning how to apply our principles to other areas of design, such as architecture, motorcycles and now helicopters. This first application of our design practices to a helicopter posed a number of interesting challenges but we have enjoyed working through them. Beauty is of vital importance to Aston Martin and to our customers and we think the ACH130 Aston Martin Edition is an inherently beautiful machine. It provided a wonderful canvas for our team to work on so we now look forward to seeing everybody’s reaction.”

Frederic Lemos, Head of Airbus Corporate Helicopters, also commented: “The ACH130 Aston Martin Edition is optimally positioned in the market for hands-on owners who draw satisfaction from personally piloting their aircraft and it generates strong brand-loyalty. In the same way Aston Martin’s products are cars for drivers who relish being at the wheel and they inspire a comparable attachment to the brand. So they are the perfect partner for us in developing this superb new ACH130 Aston Martin Edition.”
 
Also read: Aston Martin and Brough Superior reveal track-only sports bike at EICMA
 

Dr Andy Palmer writes exclusively on Christmas past, present and future for auto industry -A car industry Christmas carol