In 2011, the company announced the Airbus Helicopters H160, originally referred to by the designation of X4, promoting its use of advanced technologies.Thisdell, Dan. "Eurocopter X4 promises technical tour-de-force." Flight International, 1 March 2011. Such features reportedly included the Blue Edge rotor blades, advanced pilot assistance functionality, and reduced vibration to "near-jet" levels of smoothness.Quick, Darren. "Eurocopter plans next-generation X4 helicopter." Gizmag, 13 February 2012. Thus, the H160 is the first production rotorcraft be equipped with Blue Edge technology. Its rotor blades incorporates a double-swept shape that reduces the noise generation of blade-vortex interactions (BVI), a phenomenon which occurs when the blade impacts a vortex created at its tip, resulting in a 3–4 dB noise reduction and raising the effective payload by compared with a scaled Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin equivalent.Dubois, Thierry. "Airbus Helicopters Unveils H160 Medium Twin." "AIN Online" 3 March 2015. MilitaryFactorySkinner, Tony and Beth Maundrill. "Heli-Expo 2015: Introducing the H160." Shephard, 3 March 2015.
