u l t i m a t e e x p e r i e n c e s

Hollywood would have us believe that the truest barometer of success in life is having a chauffeur to drive you about. You’ve achieved an enviable station wherein a corpse-

like Englishman named Jeeves is at your beck and call, ready to whisk you away from home

or the office in a sumptuous automobile. Cosseted as you are amid glossy wood veneers and vibrating, massaging seats of the finest animal hides, you’re still beholden to the same gridlock and speed limits as everyone else on our increasingly clogged and overly patrolled roadways. You need to aim higher. Literally.

Witness the EC145 Mercedes-Benz Style. At a starting price of $8.3 million, it follows Eurocopter’s own Hermès edition chopper into a new niche of designer aircraft made specifically for the growing global market of high-end corporate and private aviation cus-tomers. Think Canada’s top business leaders, as well as global magnates, celebrities and royalty. This whirlybird is meant as a Monday to Friday commuter for the clouds, then on weekends, one that takes owners from pied-à-terres in Vancouver, Shanghai or Paris to chateaux in the mountains.

Though the Mercedes-Benz Style edition starts life like any of the 400 other EC145’s hovering about the world (including a hand-ful in Canada’s oil and natural gas sector), its

cabin is its calling card. Merc and Eurocopter are distant corporate cousins in the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS), so the Marseille-based aerospace giant turned to the Germans for their exper-tise in crafting luxurious environments for privileged customers. Make no mistake, top-flight luxury and exceptional levels of quality, fit and finish are the goals here. You can even paint this bird in the same silver shade long used on M-B’s F1 cars.

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Tucked amongst the lakes of Como, Italy—also the site of George Clooney’s holiday home—the automaker’s Advanced Design Studio penned four eye-wateringly lavish interiors, inspired by its own top of the range vehicles. They’re dubbed Performance, Atti-tude, Essence and Energy and all feature top-quality leathers, exotic woods and soothing ambient lighting. The goal here is to give the customer complete continuity in their travel experience, from their chauffeured S-Class or Maybach to the EC145.

Eurocopter promises this is the quietest helicopter in its class, fitted with its trade-mark one-piece glass and carbon-fibre rotor blades to minimize noise and vibration. All the better then, so you’re not be disturbed while luxuriating in your ultra-soft seat, sipping chilled Pommery from the inte-grated cooler and enjoying music or movies uploaded to the onboard 32 GB hard-drive and 15-inch screen.

Business meeting with four aboard? No problem. Got seven Victoria’s Secret models coming over for the weekend? That’s do-able, too. The cabin’s configurable for four to eight people, plus pilot and co-pilot (who also get Ebony, Grey Oak, Ash or Pinstriped Ash wood floors, by the way). There’s also a

large cargo space under the tail fin for bikes, golf clubs or cases of grand cru. Powered by twin 770-horsepower engines, the EC145 has a range of 680 kilometres, making a morning tee-off in the Laurentians and dinner in NYC entirely possible.

The first EC145 Mercedes-Benz Style helicop-ters will be delivered this spring from Eurocopter’s production facility in Donauwörth, Germany. Look for it overhead next time you’re stuck in traffic with Jeeves. Or contact Eurocopter Canada to get your own.

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