A-B Helicopters A/W 95

The A-B Helicopters A/W 95 is an American helicopter, produced by A-B Helicopters in the form of plans for amateur construction.

By 2012 the A-B Helicopters website had been taken down and plans are no longer available.

The design was developed into the Vortech A/W 95 and plans for that version remain available from Vortech.

Design and development
The A/W 95 is a development of the Adams-Wilson Choppy, which the A/W designation acknowledges. The A/W 95 was designed to comply with the US Experimental Amateur-built rules, since the empty weight is too heavy for the FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles rules, which stipulates a maximum empty weight of 254 lb. The aircraft has a standard empty weight of 271 lb. It features a single main rotor, a single-seat open cockpit without a windshield, skid landing gear and a twin cylinder, air-cooled, two-stroke, dual-ignition 50 hp Rotax 503 engine.

The aircraft fuselage is an open frame made from bolted-together and gusseted aluminum tubing. Its 19.5 ft diameter two-bladed extruded aluminum rotor has a chord of 7 in and employs a symmetrical airfoil. The transmission is constructed from a belt and chain mechanism. With its standard empty weight of 271 lb and a gross weight of 490 lb, the useful load is 219 lb. Fuel tank capacity is 5 u.s.gal, rendering a full-fuel payload of 189 lb.

While the A/W 95 is primarily plans-built, during the time that A-B Helicopters was in business some pre-fabricated parts were available.

Operational history
By January 2013 two examples had been registered in the United States with the Federal Aviation Administration.