The Aérospatiale SA330 Puma is a four-bladed, twin-engined medium transport/utility helicopter. The Puma was originally built by Sud Aviation of France, and production continued under Aérospatiale. It was also license-built in Romania as the IAR 330; an advanced, unlicenced derivative, the Atlas Oryx, was made in South Africa. The Puma was a commercial success and was quickly developed into more advanced models such as the AS332 Super Puma and AS532 Cougar, manufactured by Eurocopter since the early 1990s. These descendants of the Puma remain in production in the 21st century.
The Puma has seen combat in a range of theatres by a number of different operators. The type also saw popular use in the civilian field and has been operated by a number of civil operators.
Users[]
Algeria
Argentina
- Argentine Army
- Argentine Coast Guard
Belgium
- Gendarmerie
Brazil
- British Empire
- Cameroun
- Chile
- Ecuador
- Ethiopia
- Finland
- France
- Gabon
- Germany
- Bundesgrenzschutz
- Indonesia
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Ivory Coast
- Kuwait
- Lebanon
- Liberia
- Mexico
- Morocco
- Nepal
- Oman
- Philippines
- Portugal
- Senegal
- South Africa
- Spain
- Togo
- Tunisia
- United Arab Emirates
- Zaire
See Also[]
Related Development[]
- Atlas Oryx
- Denel Rooivalk
- Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma
- Eurocopter AS532 Cougar
- Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma Mk-II+
- Eurocopter EC725 Caracal
