The five-six seater single-engine helicopters represent a large share of the civil market. The market studies show that the main target to be reached in this field is to succeed in having a purchase price and operating costs significantly lower than those of current aircraft.

But the quality aspect of the helicopter should not be overlooked: the comfort and performance data should remain at a competitive level; the helicopter should have a high reliability level and offer easy maintenance characteristics.

Therefore the light advanced helicopter should represent an excellent cost efficiency compromise. This was the constant target kept in mind all along the design, development and production phases of the AS.350 (see Fig. 1).