Aérospatiale SA360 Dauphin

The Aérospatiale SA360 Dauphin was a single-engine French utility helicopter developed as a replacement for Aérospatiale's Alouette III in the early 1970s and to fill a gap in the company's product line in the six to ten-seat helicopter category. However, as the new helicopter offered little advantage over its predecessor and thus limited market appeal, production of the SA360 Dauphin was abandoned after only a few dozen of them had been built.

Aérospatiale had also developed a twin-engine derivative, the Dauphin II, which proved to be quite successful and has been in production for nearly 40 years. After the merger of Aérospatiale's helicopter division into Eurocopter in 1992, the Dauphin II designation was dropped, and Eurocopter-built Dauphin IIs are simply referred to as "Dauphin". The retronym "Dauphin I" is sometimes applied to the original Dauphin.