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Cinematic Tag


The Eurocopter AS355 (also known as Écureuil 2, and sold as TwinStar in North American markets) is a twin-engine light multipurpose helicopter with a three-bladed lift and two-bladed thruster.

It was originally manufactured by Aérospatiale, which later became part of the Eurocopter Group (and is now Airbus). It's design was derived from the single-engine Eurocopter AS350 (also known as Écureuil, and sold as AStar in North American markets), with Écureuil 2 designed as a more powerful twin-engine version.

The AS355 has appeared in handful of the James Bond movies. Its maybe most notable appearance was in the 1999's The World Is Not Enough as an overgrowth-clearing helicopter utilised by King Industries.

History[]

A View to a Kill (film)[]

An Aérospatiale-era AS355 F2 Ecureuil 2 is featured in the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill, where it belongs to Max Zorin, taking Stacey Sutton to his chateau.

Licence to Kill (film)[]

An AS350B Ecureuil is used by Sanchez Cartel. Dario arrives to Sanchez' villa with it, showing the Stingers. Subsequently, Sanchez, Dario and Heller use it fly to the Olympatec Meditation Institute.

GoldenEye (film)[]

Green, camouflage-patterned AS355 helicopters are employed by Janus Syndicate at the Janus Satellite Control Centre in Cuba. First, after Bond and Natalya survive the missile attack on their Cessna 172P Skyhawk and the ensuing crash because of it, Xenia is transported to their location in one. Bond grabs Xenia's AK and fires it at the AS355's pilot -- killing him and causing the copter to plummet, as well as Xenia to be pulled from the rappelling rope and then crushed to death by her harness.

Later, after the Q-branch explosive pen has devastated the main lair and Bond goes to sabotage the antenna's Beam Steering Mechanism, Natalya scouts nearby jungles around the dish and spots a AS355. After Bond and Trevelyan's fight reaches the carriage house/line feed of the array, Trevelyan orders a pilot to takeoff with the AS355. Natalya sneaks in and, after Bond has defeated Trevelyan, makes the pilot rescue Bond before the Beam Steering Mechanism collapses.

Tomorrow Never Dies (film)[]

After discovering the wreck of the British ship HMS Devonshire in the South China Sea, James Bond and Wai Lin, a Chinese spy on the same case, are captured by the henchmen of media mogul Elliot Carver and are taken by AS355 to the CMGN tower in Saigon, Vietnam.

After escaping the building, the pair grab a BMW R1200C motorbike and are chased through the streets of Saigon by the helicopter. Its pilot eventually attempts to mow down the pair using the aircraft's main rotor, but is outmaneuvered and crashes in flames.

Since no tail numbers are visible, it is not known which individual aircraft was used for the filming.

The World Is Not Enough (film)[]

Whilst investigating the activities of oil heiress Elektra King at a caviar factory owned by Valentin Zukovsky, James Bond fends off an assassination attempt using two AS355 helicopters (F1 variant) with buzz saw pendants, known as aerial side-trimmers. The devices are essentially a string of rotating buzzsaws affixed to the bottom of a helicopter. In normal operation, the pilot navigates his aircraft into position alongside overgrowth, engages the saws, and slices through the vegetative foliage. In the hands of King Industry's assassins, the blades cut through wooden platforms and even 007's BMW Z8, whilst gunmen fire from its exposed cockpit. Bond uses a ground-to-air rocket from his Z8 to shoot down the first aircraft and utilises a gas pipe and Flare Gun to destroy the second.

Spectre (film)[]

A Green AS355 is temporarily visible at the crater lair.

Behind the Scenes[]

A View to a Kill[]

The helicopter used in the movie was built in 1982 and has a French registration, F-GDMS. It is still active today, but features a very different design that looks completely different than in the movie.

In the movie, the helicopter is white, with a black fuselage. The registration (written in black) is positioned on the tail, today it has been moved to the engine cover, replacing the blue 'Aérospatiale' logo there, which was also visible in the movie.

Licence to Kill[]

The AS350B has registration XA-MUA, c/n 1531 (now XA-JDK).

The World Is Not Enough[]

During The World Is Not Enough, the helicopter assault sequence was achieved using a mixture of computer-generated helicopters and a full size mock-up of the AS355 which was suspended from a crane. For an earlier scene, where 007 encounters one of the aircraft upon arriving in Azerbaijan, a real-life helicopter was utilised and filmed on location.[1]

Interestingly, a sequence featuring a buzzsaw column-equipped helicopter was originally written into an early draft of GoldenEye by Michael France, and had the helicopter attacking Bond and the heroine at a abandoned mountainside workshed, forcing them to escape on skis while chased by it.[2]

Gallery[]

A View to a Kill[]

GoldenEye[]

Tomorrow Never Dies[]

The World Is Not Enough[]

Trivia[]

References[]

  1. The World is Not Enough (English). Rotary Action. Retrieved on 2016-08-23.
  2. Hamman, Cody (November 5 2012). 50 Years of 007 - The World Is Not Enough (English) (Blog). Life Between Frames. Retrieved on 2016-08-23.
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