Aérospatiale Gazelle

The Aérospatiale Gazelle, with company designations SA 340, SA 341 and SA 342, is a five-seat French light helicopter developed and first built by Sud Aviation and later by Aérospatiale. It was the first helicopter to carry a fenestron enclosed tail rotor and the first adapted for single-pilot instrument flight. Planned as the successor to the Alouette II and as a French Army observation helicopter, it uses a single Turbomeca Astazou turboshaft, an articulated rotor and composite blades. A 1967 agreement had Westland build it in Britain, and SOKO in Yugoslavia and ABHCO in Egypt also built it under licence. Gazelles flew as scouts, anti-tank and light-attack aircraft and civil machines, and production ended in 1996.