The Aérospatiale Alouette II is a French light helicopter originally manufactured by Sud Aviation and later Aérospatiale. It was the first production helicopter powered by a gas turbine engine instead of the heavier conventional piston powerplant.
Aérospatiale Alouette II
Sud Aviation SE.3130 Alouette II ZU-ALO; Private operator in South Africa
SA 318C Alouette II Astazou at the Borderland Museum Eichsfeld in Central Germany.
A West German Alouette II Astazou patrolling the border with East Germany, 1985
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft and many forms of short take-off and landing (STOL) or short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft cannot perform without a runway.
A Bell 206 helicopter operated by the Los Angeles Police Department Air Support Division
Cabin view looking out from a helicopter in flight
Bell 412CF looking forward from the tail, showing its twin turbine endinge exhausts
Sikorsky's V-300, 1937