AIRBUS Helicopters, based at Oxford Airport, has launched its first research and development projects in the UK despite having operated in the country for the past four decades.

One of the two current initiatives involves adapting mouldable armour from aircraft as body armour for military personnel and police.

Richard Atack, a company vice-president, said: “These are the first two we’ve done. They are significant for us.”

He said the catalyst for the UK’s largest civil helicopter company to undertake R&D in the UK was the government’s development funding.

“It’s not efficient to fund research by yourself,” he said.

One project, which began last September, involves developing lower weight, lower cost helicopter armour. The £1.2m scheme has attracted funding from the Department of Business’s advanced manufacturing supply chain scheme.

Mr Atack said: “The armour we’re developing with NetComposites is a lightweight, composite, reinforced, mouldable material with ceramic inserts. The beauty of this is that it’s mouldable.”

He said the armour could be moulded around a helicopter’s seats and doors, for instance.

Under the government’s policy of Dual Use Technology Exploitation, which encourages companies to identify and leverage technologies in one industry and apply them in another, the partners are also exploring options to adapt the new armour to protect people’s bodies from knives or bullets.

Mr Atack said that while existing body armour was slightly curved, the new composite material could be moulded for body shapes, such as arms, sides, chests and backs, while at the same time allowing flexibility for free movement.

“It will be in the form of a vest,” he said, adding that the main market was for military personnel and police.

The second project, worth £2m, commenced on November 1, and is being funded by both the government’s Aerospace Technology Institute and Airbus Helicopters.

The project involves developing technologies to measure the deformations of a helicopter rotor blade in real time while in flight. Mr Atack said: “It’s about understanding what the blade is doing.”

He said the system had the potential to have a major impact on flight safety and to reduce the amount of time required to travel between destinations.

Partners on the project include Cranfield University, BHR Group, which will do the modelling, and SME Helitune, which will monitor the test helicopters.

All testing will be conducted at Airbus Helicopters’ base at Oxford Airport. Both the armour and rotor blades projects will take three years to complete.

This is the first time Airbus Helicopters, a subsidiary of French-based Airbus Group, has participated in UK government-led industrial development.

Airbus Helicopters’ clients include the police, air ambulance services, oil and gas producers operating in the North Sea, and private helicopter owners.