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| Rotorcraft |
AINtv: Los Angeles County Fire Department
May 06, 2008
Winners of this year’s Sikorsky Award for Humanitarian Service talk to Curt Epstein about the past, present and future of helicopter use in firefighting. Click here to watch.
moreNewscopters Clash with Police
May 01, 2008
Plano, Texas Police threatened to close the airspace over future news events after helicopters from nearby television stations disrupted their attempts to end an armed, 12-hour standoff in March. Police said noise from orbiting television stations’ news helicopters hampered tactical officers’ ability to communicate with the suspect. They also charged that...
moreSon of Silver State
May 01, 2008
A former instructor at bankrupt and defunct helicopter school Silver State Helicopters has opened his own flight school in New Braunfels, Texas. Derrick Smith opened Veracity Aviation two weeks after Silver State’s collapse in February. The school operates one Robinson R22 and has eight students.Silver State, the nation’s largest civil helicopter school,...
moreBrazilian Operator Selects Blue Sky
May 01, 2008
Lider Aviaco, Brazil’s largest offshore helicopter service provider, has selected Blue Sky Network to provide satellite-based tracking and logistics services on its fleet of 40 Bell 212s and 412s and Sikorsky S-76C+s. The system uses Blue Sky’s D1000C Iridium transceiver and provides altitude-adjusted position reporting, minimum en route altitude alerting,...
moreAW Delivers First Versace Interiors
May 01, 2008
AgustaWestland has delivered the first two of its helicopters fitted with interiors styled by Italian fashion design house Versace. One aircraft, ordered by Romania-based loan company Tiriac Air, is a Grand light twin featuring a black-and-white interior and paint scheme. The second one, an AW109 Power, has a gray interior and was ordered by Italy’s...
moreCutting Edge Launches School
May 01, 2008
Cutting Edge Helicopter Training School opened its doors to student pilots in Derry, Northern Ireland, in late March. Jason Porter, owner of Cutting Edge Helicopters, is employing two Robinson R22s and one R44. There are two instructors and one examiner. According to Porter, the training environment features a steady flow of commercial traffic and a range...
moreOEM Partners with Chilean Schools
May 01, 2008
Eurocopter last month signed cooperation agreements with two Chilean universities. Within the framework of a project called Edu-Copter, the OEM signed two complementary agreements with the Adolfo Ibañez Business University and the Aeronautics Sciences Academy from the Federico Santa Maria Technical University. Eurocopter will benefit from having access to a...
moreOEMs: airframe mods key to noise reduction
May 01, 2008
Helicopter manufacturers are exploring a number of technologies to reduce noise, both that perceived from the ground and inside the cabin. European manufacturers are working on several demonstration programs to reduce noise by changing the helicopter’s airframe dynamics.According to Rogelio Ferrer, an expert at Eurocopter’s research department in Marignane,...
moreUK SAR debut for AW139
May 01, 2008
The second of three AgustaWestland AW139s that CHC Helicopter will use for search-and-rescue operations off the south coast of England on behalf of the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) was delivered to the agency’s Lee-on-Solent base last month.The new helicopters are due to replace Sikorsky S-61Ns operated by Bristow Helicopters by July. Two will...
moreOne contentious engine failure
May 01, 2008
The president of a helicopter supply company whose actions were determined by the NTSB to be a contributing factor in the January 2006 crash of a Eurocopter AS 350D has claimed that the Safety Board left out pertinent information in the probable cause report. Furthermore, the NTSB acknowledges that it never investigated the complete ownership history of the...
moreExhibit celebrates helo’s role in news gathering
May 01, 2008
When the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., opened last month to tell the tale of news gathering, publication and broadcast and to champion the concept of a free press, it did not ignore the role of aviation in the news-gathering and -broadcasting process.In fact, the first thing visitors will see is a Bell 206B JetRanger III suspended in...
moreMore changes for ‘natural quiet’ rule
May 01, 2008
The subject of aircraft noise in the Grand Canyon area has been of special interest to helicopter operators for years now, but it might be taking on an even broader dimension. The definition of “substantial restoration of natural quiet” might lead to new rules for aircraft flying over the Grand Canyon National Park at and above 18,000 feet, according to a...
moreEurocopter renews helo safety effort
May 01, 2008
Eurocopter’s “fleet safety directorate,” officially formed last July, continues to study human factors in helicopter operations, with the statistical backdrop that pilot errors cause an estimated 75 percent of helicopter accidents, and maintenance errors account for another 10 percent. The Franco- German-Spanish company is thus looking for the roots of the...
moreEC 175 main gearbox takes shape
May 01, 2008
Eurocopter design engineers continue ground testing the main gearbox of the EC 175 medium twin. “Trials started in Marignane, France late last year–on time,” program manager Francis Combes told AIN. The company has allotted two years to main gearbox development. Benoît Klein, head of dynamic component production, said the company created a digital mockup of...
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