Airbus RACER

The Airbus RACER, short for Rapid and Cost-Effective Rotorcraft, is an experimental high-speed compound helicopter developed by Airbus Helicopters from the Eurocopter X3 demonstrator within the Clean Sky 2 research programme. It was revealed at the Paris air show in June 2017 and made its first flight at Marignane on 25 April 2024. A V-shaped box wing carries about half of the lift in cruise, which lets the main rotor, a standard rotor from the Airbus H175, be slowed, while two lateral pusher propellers driven from the two Safran Aneto-1X engines provide the majority of the propulsion. Designed for a cruise above 400 km/h and a 25 percent cost reduction per distance against a conventional helicopter, it reached 240 knots, 444 km/h, in level flight in April 2025. Passenger-carrying demonstration flights and missions such as air ambulance and search and rescue were planned.