Aston Martin Takes To The Skies With ACH130 Aston Martin Edition Helicopter

Aston Martin creates wonderfully crafted and very fast motor cars. Lately, the niche marque has been exploring transport beyond the road vehicle. Today, in Courchevel in the French Alps, the company presented the ACH130 Aston Martin Edition, a designer helicopter made in collaboration with Airbus Corporate Helicopters. It represents the first product to be born out of the partnership, announced in December, with the global leader in the private and business aviation sector.

 “This is a bold cooperation,” says Frédéric Lemos, head of Airbus Corporate Helicopters. “It corresponds to our tradition of experimenting with new design approaches, the result is a unique creation of breathtaking design accomplishment and beauty.”

The ACH130 helicopter has been 12 months in the making with aeronautical designers from Airbus working closely with the creative team at Aston Martin in Gaydon, UK. The idea has been to distill the skills of both companies – advanced technology, high quality, a focus on design and craft – and to introduce the rigorous attention to detail found in premium car making to the helicopter market.

“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,” says Marek Reichman, Aston Martin vice president and chief creative officer.

He admits that applying car design practices to a helicopter offered a few “interesting challenges”. He explains, “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.”

Available in four external styles with complementary interiors, the helicopters are embellished with Aston Martin signature elements throughout. The general idea is to create a sense of family with the cars and helicopters. This includes the classic wings embossed onto luxury leather features and positioned throughout the cabin.

There are a few color schemes to choose from here including the “Stirling Green”. It features a painted gradient, fading down into the “Jet Black” shade on the underside of the helicopter with Aston Martin’s “Skyfall Silver” around the cowlings. Further external shades are available with other signature paint colors including “Xenon Grey”, “Arizona” and “Ultramarine Black”.

Inside, the auto-inspired cabin offers the sort of premium atmosphere you would expect of an Aston Martin helicopter with plenty of tactile elements. It is trimmed in black ultra-suede material and with a palette of leathers including an “Oxford Tan”, “Pure Black”, “Cormorant” and “Ivory” shade. The rear of the front seats feature the same brogue detailing as applied in the Aston Martin DB11, running down the center of the seat and the doors and trimmed with leather to provide passengers with comfortable touch points.

The final touch involves each helicopter being kitted with a plaque on the instrument panel. It includes the partnership logos, the edition number and (should they wish) the owner’s name.

“The ACH130 Aston Martin Edition is optimally positioned in the market for hands-on owners who draw satisfaction from personally piloting their aircraft and it generates strong brand-loyalty,” explains Lemos. “In the same way, Aston Martin’s products are cars for drivers who relish being at the wheel and they inspire a comparable attachment to the brand. So, they are the perfect partner for us in developing this superb new ACH130 Aston Martin Edition.”

With the Aston Martin Art of Living, the one-off bespoke cars, the AM37 speedboat, the experience programs and now the ACH130, the marque is responding to the new story of luxury, one that increasingly involves a much more complex set of values. Makers of luxury vehicles are finding that they need to represent the world that surrounds their cars - it requires some imaginative storytelling and providing a sense of belonging to a club.

“This type of non-automotive project allows designers to express themselves in very different ways,” says Reichman. “We find out about different materials different constraints within those materials as well as different usage patterns, but also how we apply our automotive knowledge into other sectors and levels of comfort materials. In many ways we are learning from the cross-fertilisation of ideas from different sectors all within the high-net-worth individual arena.”

He says of the ACH130, “it provided a wonderful canvas for our team to work on so we now look forward to seeing everybody’s reaction.”