Russian Helicopters, part of State Corporation Rostec, will take part in FIDAE 2016 International Air & Space Fair, from 29 March to 3 April, in Santiago, Chile. The holding company will showcase its newest Ma-171A2 helicopter for the first time; together with Rosoboronexport it will also demonstrate Mi-28NE and Mi-35M military helicopters. Presently, more than 200 Russian and S...
AgustaWestland has performed the maiden flight of the first of 16 AW101 helicopters destined to perform search and rescue missions for the Norwegian justice ministry. The sortie took place on 21 March at the manufacturer’s Yeovil, UK facility, where the 15.6t rotorcraft are assembled. Deliveries of the helicopters to the justice ministry, for operation by the Royal Norwegian...
Long overlooked, helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) in India will get a boost through a civil aviation requirement to be issued by the country’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in mid-April. This is the first time separate regulations are being set for the HEMS industry in India. Issues to be addressed include eliminating the requirement for HEMS...
Airbus Helicopters’ H145 is back in Asia to showcase its performance and capabilities through a series of demo flights in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Taiwan. The first H145 demo tour was held in Southeast Asia in 2013, covering Malaysia and Thailand. Since then, there has been an increasing interest in this rotorcraft, especially in the emergency medical services (EMS) and commerc...
Lebanon and Kenya will become the latest nations to procure zero-timed Bell UH-1H-based Huey II helicopters through the US Army. Last week, Bell Helicopter of Fort Worth, Texas received $19 million from the Pentagon to furnish three Huey IIs for the government of Lebanon by March 2017. The same week, the army’s non-standard rotary wing aircraft office began seeking potential sources to...
Arrivederci Finmeccanica. Buongiorno Leonardo. Not long after the Italian group announced it was consolidating its businesses around a single corporate identity, it has revealed that new identity – a surprising choice, inspired by the country’s greatest genius. Safran, meanwhile, is to replace Snecma, Messier-Bugatti-Dowty and other venerable brands with a monicker cr...
On Thursday 10th March 2016 over 40 members of the UK onshore helicopter industry got together at the buildings of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), Farnborough. Senior members of many of the Air Operators Certificate (AOC) operators and maintenance organisations, along with Airbus Helicopters UK, Finmeccanica UK, and Turbomeca UK all contributed to a busy schedule of talks aimed a...
A firepower demonstration conducted at Puckapunyal on Friday as part of the RAAF’s Exercise Jericho Dawn series has successfully validated the use of Northrop Grumman’s ‘airborne gateway’ technology, carried on a Gulfstream II demonstrator aircraft, to allow data to be shared between various ADF platforms including F/A-18F Super Hornets, Tiger ARH helicopters and the Wedget...
Bell Helicopter has manufactured and delivered 15 Bell 429s to the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) following the awarding of a contract in May 2014. The final delivery was marked by an acceptance ceremony attended by The Honourable Hunter Tootoo, minister of fisheries, oceans and the CCG, the Honourable Judy M. Foote, minister of public services and procurement, and Jody Thomas, Commissioner of...
The US Air Force expects to begin converting 21 second-hand US Army L-model Black Hawks to the HH-60G Pave Hawk standard for combat rescue missions “later this year”. Introduced during the Regan administration in 1982, the Sikorsky H-60-based Pave Hawk fleet has depleted from 112 to 97 helicopters since the type's introduction. Fifty of those remaining 97 platforms have sustaine...
Italian aerospace and defence giant Finmeccanica said it planned to change its name to Leonardo, after celebrated Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, as part of a major restructuring. The announcement came as the company, which last month agreed to sell its rail and traffic signal businesses to Japan's Hitachi in a $2.0 billion deal, announced better-than-expected results for 2015. Fin...
Helicopter engine maker Turbomeca has launched an online engine maintenance tracking system called Boost (bank of online services and technologies). The company describes it as a highly secured, web-based application developed in association with IBM that will allow operators to access real-time, personalized engine data, enrich their own fleet maintenance management and provide direct 2...
