COMMON
BK17
MBB/Kawasaki BK 117
The Rescue Bird
“The German-Japanese helicopter that saves lives for a living.”
MBB/Kawasaki · helicopter
NO PHOTO
Length
42 ft 8 in
Wingspan
36 ft 1 in (rotor)
Max speed
145 kts
Range
295 nmi
Ceiling
15,000 ft
Engines
2x Lycoming LTS101 turboshafts
Crew
1
Typical config
1-2 crew + up to 8 passengers
Built
440+ (original series)
The BK 117 was a rare thing in aviation: a true 50/50 partnership between Germany and Japan. It inherited the Bo 105's rigid rotor, added a bigger cabin with rear clamshell doors, and became the template for the modern air ambulance — its direct descendant, the H145, still dominates that world.
Fun fact
It evolved into today's Airbus H145 — the standard helicopter of emergency medicine on several continents.
How to spot one
Boxy cabin with skids and rear clamshell doors, high tail boom. Looks like a stretched Bo 105 — because structurally, it partly is.
Crews call it
The BK
Sounds like
Twin turbines with a firm rotor slap — the classic sound of a hospital helipad
One might be overhead right now.
Bogey turns the The Rescue Bird from a dot in the sky into a card in your logbook. Coming to iOS and Android.
Get Bogey