The Atlas Oryx (named after the Oryxantelope) is a medium_sized utility helicopter manufactured by the Atlas Aircraft Corporation (now Denel Aviation) of South Africa. It is an upgraded and remanufactured version of the Aerospatiale Puma, equivalent to the Eurocopter Super Puma, and offers a performance improvement over the original, in addition to cutting the operating costs by 25 to 30%.
The Oryx is currently in service with several squadrons of the South African Air Force, with about 44 being available.
It can carry up to 16 fully equipped troops or 6 wounded on stretchers with attendants or 3,000 kg freight carried in the cabin or 3,200 kg freight on an external sling.
There is also an electronic warfare (stand-off communications jamming/radar jamming) version of the Oryx that is equipped with the Grinaker Systems Technologies (GST) GSY 1501 jamming system, among others.
Two Oryx helicopters have also been modified for operations in the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic, for which they have been painted in the red and white colour scheme as illustrated in the photograph accompanying this article. These two aircraft have been given the designation of Oryx M2.
An Oryx is one of three or four large antelope species of the genus Oryx, typically having long straight almost upright horns.
The Arabian oryx, the smallest species became extinct in the wild in 1972 from the Arabian Peninsula.
The Oryx, when seen from the side, appears to have only one single horn which leads to speculations that it is probably the animal initially mistaken for Unicorn myths.
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