Most car manufacturers who talk about broadening their remit into personal mobility show off scooters or autonomous pods. Not Aston Martin. With the help of Airbus, the British brand has just launched a helicopter.
The ACH130 Aston Martin Edition is the first fruit of a partnership between Aston and Airbus Corporate Helicopters. There are four signature designs available, comprising four external liveries with complementary Aston Martin-spec cabins.
Believe it or not, this is the second of two aerospace collaborations for Aston over the last couple of months. At the end of November, the marque revealed the DBS Superleggera Concorde edition.
The helicopter pictured is Stirling Green, with a gradient into Jet Black and Skyfall Silver highlighting. Other liveries available include Xenon Grey, Arizona and Ultramarine Black.
On the inside, Aston’s influence is obvious. Beautifully-appointed Oxford tan leather seating comes with the Aston wings embossed on the headrests. Matching bags and Alcantara highlights throughout the cabin complete the look. Jumping from your DBS Superleggera to your ACH130, you’ll feel right at home. Other cabin colours include Pure Black, Cormorant and Ivory.
To mark out each limited edition example, there will be a special plaque on the instrument panel, with the partnership logos, a serial number and even the owner’s name if they wish.
- The tallest building in Miami will be an Aston Martin
“We have our own set of automotive design principles but in recent years we have been learning how to apply our principles to other areas of design, such as architecture, motorcycles and now helicopters,” said Aston Martin Vice President and CCO, Marek Reichman.
“This first application of our design practices to a helicopter posed a number of interesting challenges but we have enjoyed working through them. Beauty is of vital importance to Aston Martin and to our customers and we think the ACH130 Aston Martin Edition is an inherently beautiful machine. It provided a wonderful canvas for our team to work on so we now look forward to seeing everybody’s reaction.”
Indeed, Aston has been putting out the feelers in markets beyond cars for a little while. It’s collaborated on a submarine, a motorcycle and even an apartment building in Miami. Aston wants to be known as a luxury brand, full-stop.
Now all we need to know is whether Mr Bond will be getting one in No Time To Die…
