A French answer to a Brazilian tender

Helibras began with a Brazilian government competition to build helicopters at home. The French group Aérospatiale answered it, and on 1 January 1978 Helicópteros do Brasil was founded in São José dos Campos, the town that was already home to Embraer. Two years later the company moved to Itajubá, in the hills of southern Minas Gerais, where its factory still stands. For years it was jointly owned by MGI Participações, the investment arm of the Minas Gerais state government, by Bueninvest and by the French parent.

The Esquilo country

The product that made Helibras was the Aérospatiale AS350 Écureuil, the squirrel, known in Brazil as the Esquilo. Of the roughly 600 helicopters Helibras had built for the Brazilian market by 2012, about 70 per cent were Esquilos. More than 300 AS350s were reportedly flying in Brazil by 2011, and Brazilian Navy Esquilos have supported the country’s Antarctic programme since 1984 and flown from the carrier São Paulo. By 2013 Helibras helicopters made up more than half of Brazil’s turbine helicopter fleet.

Panthers for the army

The military followed. In 1988 a consortium of Helibras, Aérospatiale and Engesa won an international competition to supply the Brazilian Army with 36 Panteras, the AS565 Panther, and 16 Esquilos. That year the army took delivery of its first Panthers. In 2010 Helibras was contracted to upgrade 34 of them to the AS365 K2 standard, with 40 per cent more engine power and a glass cockpit, and the first two came back in March 2014.

Fifty Caracals

The biggest deal came in September 2008, when Brazil ordered 50 EC725 Caracal heavy helicopters, later renamed H225M, for its navy, air force and army in an order worth about $1 billion, to be produced at Itajubá. A new assembly hangar opened in 2012. The navy accepted its first on 19 June 2014, with the Exocet anti-ship missile being integrated alongside, and by October 2015 the Brazilian fleet had flown 10,000 hours.

From Eurocopter to Airbus

When Aérospatiale’s helicopter division merged with Daimler-Benz’s in 1992, Eurocopter became Helibras’s parent, and in 2006 it bought out the other shareholders. Since 2014 the parent has been Airbus Helicopters. Helibras has delivered more than 800 helicopters, about a tenth of them exported across Latin America. In July 2025 Brazil and France signed a letter of intent to produce the twin-engine H145 in Brazil, about 220 aircraft over 15 years.

Factories

• Itajubá factory · Itajubá, Minas Gerais — Main plant since 1980; new assembly hangar 2012
• Campo de Marte · São Paulo — Commercial office and maintenance shop from 1998
• Customer Support Centre · Atibaia, São Paulo — Opened 2013

Records and firsts

• Only helicopter manufacturer in Latin America