Atlas Oryx

The Atlas Oryx is a medium-sized twin-engined utility helicopter developed in South Africa by Atlas Aircraft Corporation, now part of Denel Aeronautics, as a development of the French Aerospatiale Puma. It grew out of the Border War and the arms embargo that stopped South Africa importing foreign transport helicopters, and it was developed in parallel with, and is closely related to, the Rooivalk attack helicopter. After a single Puma was converted to the Oryx configuration, quantity production was authorised in the late 1980s. Its existence became public in 1991, when it was already serving with the South African Air Force, its largest operator, which later reduced the fleet and upgraded the remainder. Oryx helicopters have repeatedly supported United Nations peacekeeping in the Democratic Republic of Congo.