MBB Bo 105

Updated: October 2026 – A small, rounded helicopter pulls up over the airshow runway, tips over onto its back and flies a clean loop: that can only be an MBB Bo 105. The twin-engine helicopter from Ottobrunn near Munich is one of the most influential helicopters ever. With it, civil air rescue began in Germany in 1970, the Army hunted tanks with it as the PAH-1, and to this day it performs maneuvers at air shows that you otherwise only see from aerobatic airplanes. Here you learn where the Bo 105 comes from, what makes its rotor so special, how to identify it with confidence and where you can still get it in front of your lens today.

What is the Bo 105?

The Bo 105 is a light multi-purpose helicopter with two turbines in the two-tonne class. It is considered the world’s first light twin-engine helicopter – at a time when machines of this size generally flew with a single engine. Two powerplants, plus dual hydraulics and dual electrical supply, brought a safety plus that especially convinced the rescue services and police.

In the main version, the Bo 105 CB, two Allison 250-C20B turbines of about 310 kilowatts each do the work. The main rotor measures just under ten meters in diameter, and overall the helicopter is about twelve meters long. The maximum takeoff weight is around 2.4 to 2.5 tonnes depending on the version, and the cruise speed about 200 km/h. The compact cabin holds three to four passengers in addition to one or two pilots – or, in the rescue version, a patient on a stretcher who is slid in through the rear doors.

History: from Ottobrunn to the whole world

The Bo 105 is a child of the Bölkow company in Ottobrunn. From 1964, the team around Ludwig Bölkow worked on a new light helicopter; work on the hingeless rotor had begun even earlier. On February 16, 1967, the second prototype took off for its first flight, and in May of the same year Bölkow showed the aircraft publicly for the first time. In testing, a main rotor from the British Westland Scout was initially used before the company’s own hingeless rotor was ready for production.

In October 1970, the German authorities granted certification, and the first customers were practically ready at once: ADAC air rescue (ADAC-Luftrettung) and the Bavarian police. By then Bölkow had been absorbed into Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB), under whose name the helicopter became famous. The Bo 105 C followed in 1972, and from the mid-1970s the Bo 105 CB with more powerful Allison turbines, which became the most important production version. For the US rescue market, the stretched CBS with a longer cabin was created, later the more powerful LS for high and hot operating areas. In North America, Boeing Vertol marketed the type for a time.

The Bo 105 was also built abroad: license production existed in Spain at CASA, in Indonesia as the NBO-105, in the Philippines and in Canada, where most of the Bo 105 LS was built. After MBB and Aérospatiale’s helicopter division merged into Eurocopter, production in Germany ran out in 2001. About 1,400 aircraft came from German production; with the license-built ones, it was more than 1,600 worldwide. The EC135, today’s Airbus H135, took its place in the lineup. How the line lives on at Airbus Helicopters and in the overall group Airbus, you can read on the manufacturer pages.

Version	Feature	Main user
Bo 105 A	first production version from 1970	civil customers, air rescue, police
Bo 105 C / CB	more powerful engines, main version	worldwide, civil and military
Bo 105 CBS	stretched cabin	rescue service, media flights
Bo 105 LS	more power for altitude and heat	Canada, mountain operations
Bo 105 P (PAH-1)	anti-tank with HOT guided missiles	Bundeswehr Army Aviation (Heeresflieger)
Bo 105 M (VBH)	liaison and observation	Bundeswehr Army Aviation (Heeresflieger)
NBO-105	license production in Indonesia	Indonesian armed forces and agencies

The secret: the hingeless rotor

What sets the Bo 105 apart from its contemporaries sits on top of the mast. On most helicopters of the 1960s, flapping and lead-lag hinges at the rotor head absorbed the blades’ movements. Bölkow took a different path: the rotor head is a solid titanium part, and the four blades of glass-fiber-reinforced plastic are so elastic that they absorb the movements themselves.

For pilots, that means very direct, precise control. The helicopter reacts immediately to every input, and it tolerates flight conditions that would be delicate with articulated rotors – right up to positive and negative loads in aerobatics. For operators, maintenance mattered most: fewer moving parts, less wear, blades with a very long service life.

How capable the concept was was shown in March 1975 by an experimental aircraft: the aerodynamically refined Bo 105 HGH reached 404 km/h in a descent. An early Bo 105 with serial number 1, which long served as a test vehicle for the manufacturer and the Technical University of Munich, now stands in the Flugwerft Schleißheim, the aviation branch of the Deutsches Museum.

Christoph 1: the birth of air rescue

On November 1, 1970, the Federal Republic’s first civil, permanently operated rescue helicopter went into service at the hospital in Munich-Harlaching – a Bo 105 with the call sign “Christoph 1.” The operator was ADAC, which had made first trials in 1968 and 1969 with a chartered Bell 206 Jet Ranger. ADAC Luftrettung today calls that day the birth of air rescue in Germany.

The early years were not without setbacks: in two accidents in the 1970s, crew members of Christoph 1 lost their lives. Even so, a nationwide network grew out of the Munich station, and for decades the Bo 105 was the standard type in air rescue. ADAC, DRF Luftrettung and the federal government’s helicopters used it in large numbers. At Harlaching itself, the larger BK 117, which MBB had developed together with Kawasaki, followed in the early 1980s.

The end came with new European performance rules for commercial helicopter operations, which excluded the Bo 105 from commercial air rescue from 2010. ADAC Luftrettung had replaced its last Bo 105s by the end of 2007, the Federal Ministry of the Interior by 2008 and DRF by 2009. Their successors – above all the EC135 and later the H145 – still carry the call sign “Christoph” with a number today.

With the police and the Bundeswehr

Police: The Bavarian police flew the Bo 105 from June 1971, with Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate following in the years afterward. North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia also had the type in their fleets; the last state police aircraft in Thuringia were retired in 2019. The Bo 105 was chosen because of its two engines and low maintenance effort.

Army Aviation (Heeresflieger): Two variants were built for the Bundeswehr (German armed forces). The Bo 105 M, designated liaison and observation helicopter (VBH), replaced the Alouette II; 100 examples flew with the Army until 2004. Better known is the Bo 105 P, the Panzerabwehrhubschrauber 1 (PAH-1), with HOT guided missiles on side outriggers. Between 1979 and 1984, the Army received 212 aircraft. The PAH-1 was originally intended as an interim solution, but it flew for over three decades, from 1991 in the upgraded PAH 1A1 version.

Its successor in the combat role was the Tiger. Between 2006 and 2014, part of the PAH-1 fleet was disarmed and converted into the Bo 105 P1M for liaison and training duties. In December 2016, the Army retired the type in Celle with a formation flight; by then the fleet had accumulated more than 1.38 million flight hours. How Bundeswehr aircraft are marked is explained in the guide to Bundeswehr markings.

Aerobatics: the Flying Bulls’ Bo 105

No other use has made the Bo 105 as famous as aerobatics. Thanks to the hingeless rotor, it flies loops, rolls and inverted passes that are taboo for most helicopters. MBB had cleared it for loads of 3.5 g positive and 1 g negative, and in 2005 the Bo 105 CB received its own aerobatic certification – according to the specialist literature, as the only helicopter to date.

Best known are the displays of the Flying Bulls. The Red Bull fleet, based at Hangar-7 in Salzburg, operates two Bo 105 Cs built in 1974 with the registrations D-HSDM and D-HTDM. Both formerly flew with the police and joined the Flying Bulls in 2005. There is also a stretched Bo 105 CBS from 1993 (D-HUDM), which flies as a media helicopter for aerial footage with a camera on a boom.

If you want to see the aerobatic Bo 105, airshows are your best chance. The articles Europe’s aerobatic teams and Airshows in Europe for plane spotters give an overview of air shows and teams. At Salzburg Airport, the spot at Hangar-7, where the fleet is based, is worth a visit.

The features that are enough to identify it

Final certainty comes from the registration. German civil helicopters begin with D-H, as explained in the article on German aircraft registrations. Many Bo 105s transmit ADS-B data and show up in tracking services as B105; how to find helicopters there is shown in the guide Helicopters on the flight tracker.

Bo 105, H135 or BK 117?

The family resemblance among the MBB helicopters keeps causing mix-ups. The finder helps you narrow it down.

Other candidates: the Bell 206 JetRanger is similarly small, but has only one turbine and two rotor blades. The Gazelle carries a Fenestron and three blades, and the Alouette III is a single-engine helicopter with three blades and an older, articulated rotor head. The MD 500 looks like an egg with a thin tail boom and has only one engine. The article How to recognize helicopter types offers an overall overview.

Where you can still see the Bo 105 today

In everyday service, the Bo 105 has become rare in Germany. Air rescue, the Bundeswehr and the state police have retired it. You find flying examples mainly with private operators, for aerial work and film flights, and at aerobatic displays. Abroad, individual aircraft are still in service with armed forces, police and rescue services.

Location	Chance of success	Why
Airshows with a Flying Bulls appearance	high	aerobatic program of the Bo 105 C
Hangar-7 / Salzburg Airport	medium	home base of the Flying Bulls, exhibition in the hangar
Helicopter Museum Bückeburg	certain (on the ground)	Bo 105 in Flying Bulls livery in the exhibition
Flugwerft Schleißheim (Deutsches Museum)	certain (on the ground)	early Bo 105 with serial number 1
Smaller airfields	low	private operators and aerial work

At the Helicopter Museum Bückeburg stands a Bo 105 in Flying Bulls colors – together with predecessors and successors, you can trace the whole line of development there. If you are looking for rarities specifically, the article Spotting rare aircraft has more ideas.

Photo tips specifically for the Bo 105

With helicopters, the shutter speed matters most. If you expose too briefly, the rotor stands still, and in a loop the Bo 105 looks as if it is about to fall out of the sky.

The technique is the same as for propeller aircraft; details are in the guide Photographing propellers: the right shutter speed. For air shows, the article Photographing airshows helps, and you can work out when the light is right with the sun position planner guide. You can find general tips on rotorcraft under Helicopter spotting.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

Conclusion

The Bo 105 is a piece of German aviation history that you can still see fly today – if you know where. With it, air rescue began, with it the Army practiced anti-tank warfare from the air, and with it the Flying Bulls show what a hingeless rotor is capable of. An open tail rotor, four blades and a tiny, rounded fuselage give away the type, and the registration tells the story of the individual aircraft. If you are just starting out, the introduction Plane spotting for beginners gets you up to speed quickly.