The ACH130 Aston Martin Edition helicopter, the first offering from the recently announced partnership between Aston Martin Lagonda and Airbus Corporate Helicopters (ACH), was revealed today at Courchevel in the French Alps. The special edition is available on request with deliveries taking place from Q1 2020, and is aimed at owners who enjoy piloting their own helicopter as much as they enjoy driving sports cars.
Aeronautical designers at ACH and automotive designers at Aston Martin have worked closely together for over a year, to develop four external liveries with complementary interiors. Fans of the Aston Martin marque will appreciate the signature Aston Martin elements, which include the iconic Aston Martin wings embossed onto luxury leather features throughout the cabin.
The Stirling Green-themed external scheme, which has been applied to the first aircraft, features a painted gradient, which fades down into jet black on the underside of the helicopter with ‘Skyfall Silver’ around the cowlings. Further external liveries are available with other Aston Martin paint colours, including Xenon Grey, Arizona and Ultramarine Black.
The automotive-inspired cabin is trimmed in Pure Black ultra-suede with a palette of leather options comprising Oxford Tan, Pure Black, Cormorant and Ivory. On the rear of the front seats the same ‘brogue’ detailing that is found in a DB11 sports car runs down the centre of the seat and the doors have been trimmed with leather to provide comfortable touch points during flight. By using materials from the Aston Martin automotive palette, the interior of this special edition of the ACH130 is perfect for fans of Aston Martin sports cars.
Each of these special edition helicopters will have a plaque included on the instrument panel which shows the partnership logos, the registration of the aircraft, the edition number and the owner’s name, should they wish to have it included.
Aston Martin VP and chief creative officer, Marek Reichman said, “We have our own set of automotive design principles, but in recent years we have been learning how to apply our principles to other areas of design, such as architecture, motorcycles and now helicopters. This first application of our design practices to a helicopter posed a number of interesting challenges but we have enjoyed working through them. Beauty is of vital importance to Aston Martin and to our customers, and we think the ACH130 Aston Martin Edition is an inherently beautiful machine. It provided a wonderful canvas for our team to work on so we now look forward to seeing everybody’s reaction.”
