of four, or between four and eight passengers in a more luxurious executive seating configuration. Later models can be flown by a single pilot when provisioned with an appropriately configured cockpit. The S-76 was not originally designed with crashworthy fuel systems, leading to difficulties continuing production after an FAA requirement was implemented in April 2020. Operational history Early on in its commercial career, the S-76 became popular for offshore operations, such as to oil rigs. Numerous operators have either purchased or leased the type specifically to operate in this sector. During 1982, the S-76A set multiple class records for range, climb, speed and ceiling. In June 1995, the S-76 became the first helicopter to circumnavigate the world in an east-to-west direction, piloted by the Australian adventurer Dick Smith. Several airlines have operated the S-76A on scheduled services, including Helijet Airways of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. During the campaigning in the run up to the 2005 United Kingdom general election, both the Labour and the Conservative parties dispensed with conventional 'battle buses' in favour of S-76 helicopters to quickly transport their leaders around the British Isles. According to Jason Lambert, Sikorsky's vice president of commercial and military systems, the S-76 had proven itself to be particularly popular amongst VIP customers. By 2020, according to Sikorsky, ten countries operated S-76s to carry their heads of state. S-76s have been periodically used to test new technologies and capabilities. The highly-modified S-76 SHADOW (Sikorsky Helicopter Advance Demonstrator of Operators Workload) was built to demonstrate its advanced cockpit for single-pilot operations and to study the human engineering interface between the pilot and the cockpit controls and displays; this was in aid of the RAH-66 Comanche armed reconnaissance helicopter programme. During the 2010s, an S-76 was configured for autonomous operation and demonstrated this ability in June 2016, flying for a distance of around 30 miles (48 km) with no human intervention beyond limited inputs made via a tablet computer, the take off and landing phases were also performed autonomously. During the 2010s, many S-76 operators elected to replace the type with newer medium-lift rotorcraft, such as the AgustaWestland AW139. In early 2020, it was observed that, while the S-76D was no longer compliant with FAA regulations to permit its sale to US-based customers, sales were still possible to several other countries. Variants Civil Original production version, powered by two Rolls-Royce (Allison) 250-C30 turboshaft engines. Large number