In the early 1970's Aerospatiale in France started work on a completely new helicopter, the AS350 which has become popularly known as the Ecureuil, Squirrel, and AStar. The AS350 was set to replace their aging Alouette II helicopters for military, police enforcement, EMS and civilian roles. The AS350 first took flight on June 27, 1974 and quickly gained an excellent reputation for quality at a lower cost. The need for a light twin turbine helicopter, particularly in America encouraged Aerospatiale to produce the twin engine version that first flew on September 27, 1979.

The AS355 commonly known as the Ecureuil II, Twin Squirrel and Twin Star are powered by two Allison turbines to provide economic redundancy in the light helicopter class. After the Twin Star was introduced the number of helicopter crashes directly related to engine failure dropped significantly. Succeeding the AS355 is the EC130 which replaced the conventional two blade tail rotor with a Fenestron fan tail version which first flew on June 24, 1999. The EC130 Fenestron tail reduced the outside tail rotor noise by nearly 50% and the cabin has more windscreen area which makes it particularly attractive to the tourism industry. Even today, the sales for the AStar and TwinStar are quite strong as Aerospatiale/Eurocopter has continued to make necessary improvements to keep their affordable helicopters competitive.

The TwinStar fuselage is one of the larger 30 class fuselages offered by LHC and will accomodate a greater selection of 30-50 size mechanics. Although we indicate that the 50 class helicopters are compatible, only mechanics that are actually 30 class but have larger engines will work. So for example, a Shuttle 30/46 is a direct fit, a Raptor 30/50 requires the collective pitch arm to be shorted, and the Ergo 30/50 is a struggle. In cases like the Ergo 30/50 the right modeler can make it work beautifully, but is not recommended for beginners and intermediate scale modelers. We don't recommend this for beginners simply because there are just too many topics to learn about at the start to become an accomplished and skilled model helicopter pilot. Taking on a scale helicopter should be a pleasure, not a headache and potential money pit when components don't fit as they have been advertised.