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February 24, 2009

Russia is a ripe market for Western makers’ helicopters

By Mark Huber

Russia is a ripe market for Western helicopters, and at least one company, AgustaWestland, plans to establish manufacturing there. Overall there is considerable potential for more Western rotorcraft penetration in the Russian market especially in the civil, law enforcement and oil-and-gas sectors, with a demand that could grow to 450 to 500 helicopters by 2015. That was the message yesterday from more

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BAE rolls out civil Q-Sight

By Mark Huber

BAE Systems has its helmet/headset mounted Q-Sight head-up display (HUD) in its booth here (No. 110) and will start making customer deliveries later this year. Initial deliveries will be made to military customers, who are expected to comprise the bulk of demand, but the company will be making the system available to civil operators as well. BAE sees a significant market for Q-Sight with HEMS oper more

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Sunrise disputes NTSB findings for 2006 crash

By Jennifer Harrington

The president of helicopter supply company Sunrise Helicopter has filed a petition to revise a 2008 NTSB report that held the company partially responsible for the January 2006 crash of a Eurocopter AS 350D.
The Safety Board concluded that the helicopter lost engine power during a Hawaiian sightseeing flight and crashed due to “significant” engine-bearing damage and heat distress suffe more

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Sikorsky honors PHI’s 60th anniversary

Celebrating PHI’s 60 years of helicopter operations, Sikorsky Aircraft yesterday recognized the well-known operator at the Sikorsky booth (No. 1740) at Heli-Expo’09. Within its diverse fleet, PHI operates 43 S-76 and 10 S-92 helicopters, the largest number of Sikorsky machines in its history. The operator has logged more than 10.5 million helicopter hours since its founding in 1949 through Dec more

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Merlin’s Sikorsky S-300C sim is as new as helicopter’s name

By R. Randall Padfield

There’s a good reason for the new-car smell of the Merlin Simulation Pro Series Sikorsky 300C (nee Schweizer 300C) advanced aviation training device (AATD) the company is demonstrating at Heli-Expo. The device received FAA approval at the beginning of this month and the one here was just built. The unit used for approval is already with flight-training school Rotors of the Rockies in Colorado. T more

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S-92 upgrade details coming soon

By Jennifer Harrington

Heli-Expo is normally a venue for major announcements, but in an ironic twist, one of Sikorsky Aircraft’s announcements on Monday was that it will be making an announcement about the S-92–eventually.
The manufacturer (Booth No. 1740) is conducting test flights at its West Palm Beach, Fla. facility of an S-92 with a “significant” gross-weight expansion, totaling “several hundred p more

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NTSB now says S-76 crash cause may be bird strike

By Jennifer Harrington

DNA analysis of material taken from the pilot-side windscreen of a Sikorsky
S-76C++ helicopter that crashed January 4 near Morgan City, La., suggests that
the accident might have been caused by a bird strike.
On February 5 the NTSB said the preliminary investigation showed no evidence of a bird strike, but it also ruled out fuel starvation; a midair collision; the failure of the more

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Rolls forecast highlights long-term helo demand

By Harry Weisberger

Rolls-Royce, in its annual 10-year market forecast, sees a market characterized by near-term softness followed by a resumption of growth. Over the  period, total helicopter deliveries are predicted to be 15,800, a slight increase on the figure from last year’s forecast.
The company points to an underlying long-term demand in a $12 billion turbine-engine market where global markets sh more

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Program update: Honeywell spotlights the old and new

By Harry Weisberger

Honeywell Engines comes to Heli-Expo with five turboshaft models ranging in age from venerable to brand-new and in power from 1,000 shp to 5,000.
Doug Kult, Honeywell’s director of sales for helicopter and surface systems, told HAI Convention News that the company’s biggest engine, the T55, continues to power the Boeing CH-47 Chinook. The T53, which was the old Huey engine, is n more

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Honeywell debuts Zing diagnostics

By Henry Weisberger

Honeywell is at Heli-Expo (Booth No. 1310) debuting its latest iteration of Zing for civil helicopters, an on-condition maintenance diagnostic system. A military version of Zing has been keeping U.S. Army Apache attack helicopters flying in some of the world’s worst conditions. The Boeing AH-64D was the first application of a Zing suite of systems, leveraging commercial of-the-shelf (COTS) techn more

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