In November 2024, Airbus announced a sale of 19 H135 helicopters to train military pilots in Canada.  The contract is with SkyAlyne, a joint venture between Canadian defence leaders CAE and KF Aerospace, which will provide the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) a wide-ranging program to train the next generation of RCAF Pilots.

SkyAlyne have now published CGI imagery of each aircraft type they will be using, together with the Canadian military designation and name of each.

All, bar one, will be in a yellow and dark blue high-conspicuity scheme.  This is a widely used combination which is considered the ultimate colour combination to ensure the aircraft is visible from below against any sky colours and from above against any ground colouring.

In between the two colours is a red and white stripe, reflecting the Canadian flag, which will appear in full on the tail of the helicopter.

The H135 will be known under the Canadian military designation of CT-153 and the name Juno, which has been taken from the name created by the Royal Air Force in the UK for their H135 training fleet.

The contract is part of Canada’s Future Aircrew Training (FAcT) Program, which includes four fixed wing types.  Orders have been placed for

• 19 Pilatus PC-21 trainers (local name CT-157 Siskin II)
• 23 Grob 120TP trainers (CT-102B Astra II)
• 7 Beech King Air 260s trainers (CT-145E Expeditor II)
• 3 Dash 8-400 (CT-142Q Citadel)

The twin-engine helicopters will be completed and delivered from Airbus Helicopters’ industrial facility located in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada. They will be customised with a number of Canadian developed Supplemental Type Certificates, including modifications to the avionics suite and communications systems, as well as custom development in the cockpit. Deliveries are expected to begin in the first half of 2026.