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| Rotorcraft |
Duo Smashes Around-the-world Helo Speed Record
August 19, 2008
The “Grand Adventure” concluded yesterday morning at New York La Guardia Airport. Helicopter pilots Scott Kasprowicz and Steve Sheik flew a stock twin-engine 2007 AgustaWestland A109S Grand 20,078 miles in a little more than 11 days, shattering the old record by almost six days. The pair beat the record without auxiliary fuel tanks, chase airplanes or an...
moreRobinson’s switch to steel blades gets mixed reviews
August 01, 2008
For Robinson Helicopter, switching from aluminum to stainless-steel skin for main rotor blades has been “a mixed bag,” said company vice president Kurt Robinson, who defended the move on the grounds that the change means lighter and stronger blades with better corrosion resistance. But critics argue that the stainless skins do not hold paint well and that...
moreOffshore Contract for Norsk
August 01, 2008
Norsk Helikopter has signed a six-year contract with StatoilHydro and ENI Norge for offshore oil platform helicopter transportation from Hammerfest, Norway, starting next year. The agreement includes two Eurocopter EC 225s, which will perform platform crew change services and 24/7 search-and-rescue in the Barents Sea. The search-and-rescue helicopter will...
moreEurocopter Takes Over Mx Firm
August 01, 2008
Eurocopter has announced it will take over Motorflug Baden-Baden, a German helicopter MRO specialist. The firm has bases in Baden-Baden, Rheinmünster and Schönhagen, near Berlin. It will become part of Eurocopter’s service and support business. The manufacturer intends to continue to provide MRO services to all Motorflug customers’ helicopters, whatever the...
moreSilver State Students Sue Lender
August 01, 2008
Students of the now-defunct training school Silver State Helicopters are suing KeyBank, one of the banks that financed their tuition, charging that it engaged in fraudulent loan practices and was an active participant in a Ponzi scheme concocted by Silver State executives. Silver State filed Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy on February 3. The class action...
morePoland Picks EC 135 for EMS
August 01, 2008
The Polish Ministry of Health has ordered 23 Eurocopter EC 135s for its nationwide EMS network. Deliveries will be spread over 2009 and 2010. The EC 135s will replace aging Russian-made Mi-2s. They will enable Poland’s air rescue system to become fully compliant with European JAR OPS-3 standards, Eurocopter emphasized. An EC 135 flight simulator is also...
moreSkyTrac Approved for Robinsons
August 01, 2008
SkyTrac’s automated flight following and satellite communication system has received FAA STC and Transport Canada Type Certificate Data Sheet (TCDS) approval for installation in Robinson R22s and R44s. SkyTrac is already approved for installation in various AgustaWestland, Bell, Eurocopter and Sikorsky models.
moreWith an eye to the environment, Eurocopter mulls system changes
August 01, 2008
Eurocopter is stepping up its efforts to make helicopters more environmentally friendly by eliminating hydraulic and engine bleed-air systems, introducing diesel engines for light rotorcraft and reducing helicopter noise.Research and development on the elimination of hydraulic systems and the introduction of diesel engines began as part of the EU’s CleanSky...
moreAuction highlights mismanagement at Silver State
August 01, 2008
The state of the assets of bankrupt Silver State Helicopters is providing clues about how the troubled company was run before its shutdown and Chapter 7 (liquidation) bankruptcy filing in February. At the time of its closing, Silver State was the largest civilian helicopter school in the U.S., with 2,400 students and more than 700 employees distributed...
moreKeystone readies for S-76D production
August 01, 2008
Sikorsky’s Keystone Helicopter division is gearing up to produce both the S-76D and the S-92 at its Coatesville, Pa. Heliplex campus. The first S-76D is scheduled to fly by year-end, but Keystone’s president, David Ford, acknowledges, “That’s going to be a challenge.” Keystone has received three S-76D fuselages from Aero Vodochody and hopes to ship the...
moreFrench helo operator caught smuggling drugs
August 01, 2008
Police arrested Jean-Pierre Bernardini, managing director of France-based Corseus Hélicoptères, in connection with a drug-smuggling operation in late June. The police watched 1,200 pounds of hashish being unloaded from a Eurocopter AS 350 Ecureuil owned by the company and arrested nine people near Béziers, in the south of the country.According to local...
moreSikorsky Reaches Flight-hour Milestone
August 01, 2008
The in-service fleet of Sikorsky S-92 medium-twin helicopters reached 100,000 total flight hours, the company announced last month. The first production S-92 was delivered in late 2004. There are now 67 S-92s in service, 11 of which fly an estimated 130 to 170 hours per month. To date, 13 of the aircraft have logged more than 3,500 flight hours.
moreMedevac helicopters collide over Arizona
August 01, 2008
Neither of the two medevac Bell 407s that collided in midair June 29 over Flagstaff, Ariz., was equipped with TCAS or any kind of cockpit voice or data recorder, an NTSB spokesman told AIN. However, data from the engine control units (ECUs) and satellite GPS receivers on board both aircraft, an Outerlink satellite tracking system on one of the helicopters...
moreRolls and GE Unveil New Turboprop Engines
July 31, 2008
Rolls-Royce unveiled a new turboprop engine for general aviation applications on Tuesday at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis. The RR500 turboprop engine is larger than the turboshaft RR300 launched last year and will deliver 350 to 450 shp. Based on the RR300 core, the RR500 features a higher mass flow compressor and correspondingly matching turbine, as well...
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