Before ever having put a helicopter into service, Swiss OEM Kopter has been sold to Leonardo, the two companies announced on the opening day of Heli-Expo 2020. The Italian manufacturer will acquire 100 percent of the Wetzikon, Switzerland-based company, which anticipates dual EASA/FAA certification for its SH09 light single by year-end. Leonardo expects the purchase from investment firm Lynwood to be completed in the first quarter, subject to regulatory approval.
The purchase price consists of a $185 million fixed component and an earn-out mechanism linked to certain milestones over the life of the program, starting in 2022. In 2016, Cyprus-based Lynwood, controlled by Russian oligarch Alexander Mamut, invested $270 million into the company.
While merger integration teams on both sides begin to meet, Kopter will continue to act as an autonomous legal entity and brand within Leonardo’s helicopter division, “for the time being,” according to Leonardo Helicopters managing director Gian Piero Cutillo. “We will start working together, obviously all the decisions will be made in the interest of Leonardo, but from now on we have a common target,” he noted.
At the announcement on the Heli-Expo 2020 show floor on Tuesday morning, Leonardo CEO Alessandro Profumo admitted to initial skepticism. “I would say that I was not enthusiastic, then the more we’re working on that, the more I was positive,” he told the crowd.
FAA Administrator Dickson Stresses Safety at Heli-Expo
Making his first appearance at Heli-Expo as FAA Administrator, Stephen Dickson delivered a safety-focused message to show attendees on Tuesday morning, citing numerous challenges the industry faces and what the FAA is doing to help craft solutions.
His safety theme was cast in sharp relief by the helicopter accident that claimed Kobe Bryant and eight others on the eve of the gathering, “only 50 miles away from the convention center,” Dickson said. “Whatever the investigations ultimately determine, all of us in this room know that all too often helicopter accidents turned out to have been preventable.”
The former airline and fighter pilot admitted he has little background in helicopters. “I'm a student and I'm here to learn from you,” he told attendees. “But it's clear to me from a professional perspective that rotary-wing aviation is a central element of our transportation system.”
Comprising about 6 percent of general aviation aircraft in the U.S., helicopters make a “significant and even disproportionate” impact “when you count the benefits,” Dickson said.
But traditional views of the industry are outdated, given the rise of drones and the nascent urban mobility industry, he added. Since the FAA established a mandatory registry four years ago, more than 1.5 million drones have been registered—some 400,000 of them for commercial use—and the agency has already approved 27 operators under Part 137 to use drones commercially to perform aerial applications.
Erickson has begun preparations for what it describes as the next generation of heavy-lift helicopters, the Oregon-based company announced on the opening day of Heli-Expo 2020.
CEO Doug Kitani described the concept, which has been designated as the S-64F+ Air Crane, in general terms. “We will build the world’s most advanced heavy-lift and heavy-aerial-attack platform,” he told the crowd gathered at the company’s booth. “Our goal is to improve the performance of the aircraft and to provide unmatched night, terrain, and obstacle-awareness systems.”
Kitani mentioned that more specific details on the helicopter’s planned capabilities, as well as partnerships, would be disclosed over time. In fact, a partnership with a major OEM on a new flight control system and cockpit awareness system is expected to be unveiled on Wednesday at Heli-Expo.
“The technology to accomplish what we want is out there, and it’s really a systems integration exercise,” he said. “We don’t see a huge amount of technology risk, but we are going to focus on the things that we think are important for bringing the aircraft to market sooner rather than later.” Kitani added that the process will be subject to FAA approval, which could extend several years.
Among the upgrades will be a new zero-hour airframe—Erickson’s first to incorporate a new design—as well as composite rotor blades that are pending FAA certification. Another improvement will come from more powerful Fadec-equipped engines.
Helicopter lessor Milestone Aviation Group has purchased three Leonardo AW139s and is leasing them back to French helicopter services provider Héli-Union, boosting Milestone’s AW139 fleet to more than 80. The transaction includes four additional leases: two Airbus H225s; an additional AW139; and a lease extension for another AW139.
Milestone CEO Pat Sheedy pronounced his company “delighted to expand our relationship” with the French operator, with which it’s been working for more than two years.
Low oil-and-gas prices and oversupply of aircraft have depressed the rotorcraft market since the middle of the last decade, leading to recent bankruptcies of high-profile helicopter lessors. Sheedy credited Dublin-based Milestone’s scale; the backing of parent company GE Capital Aviation Services; and ability to analyze massive amounts of data for getting through the downturn.
“We are seeing a positive demand outlook,” Sheedy told AIN. “There are still structural issues within the space, which will put a cap on how quickly we can recover and how quickly capital will come back into the space.”
The primary concern, he said, is the standard lease agreement. “When we purchase a new aircraft, we make a 25- to 30-year bet on that aircraft. We lease that to our operators who make a six- to eight-year bet on the lease,” but “an end-user can cancel the contract within 60 days,” Sheedy said.
Celebrating 100M Flight Hours, Airbus Raking in Orders
Airbus Helicopters CEO Bruno Even announced Tuesday at Heli-Expo 2020 that the company’s installed fleet has achieved 100 million flight hours, a record 2019 for new bookings thanks largely to strong military orders, and certification “within the next few weeks” of the new intermediate twin H160. Shell Aircraft would be one of the first operators of the H160 and fly it to support its offshore energy operations, he added.
Even also provided details on product enhancements related to Airbus’s ubiquitous turbine single, the H125, that provide up to an additional 419 pounds of payload and better hover ceiling performance thanks to additional power from the helicopter’s Safran Arriel 2D engine. The extra power will be a no-cost enhancement on all new-build H125s and is expected to be available in the third quarter. A retrofit solution will be available for all AS350B3e series that requires a simple software upgrade to that helicopter’s vehicle and engine multifunction display (VEMD).
New H125s will also be equipped with the BLR Fast Fin tailrotor kit, which will improve the OGE hover ceiling up to 13,400 feet, a gain of 2,300 feet. Avionics enhancements for the H125 include a simplified instrument panel with the Garmin G500H TXI touchscreen, remote display of the VEMD engine parameters via Bluetooth connection on smartphones and tablets, useful when monitoring external loads, and two additional upper windows to improve forward visibility.
Metro Aviation has delivered the first U.S.-made Airbus EC145e. It is one of two of the medium twins ordered by Duke Health’s Duke Life Flight from the air medical services provider. Metro is showcasing the helicopter this week at its Heli-Expo display in Anaheim, California.
The operator's EC145es are equipped with a lightweight IFR package Metro developed and installed at its Shreveport, Louisiana completions facility and headquarters. Duke Life Flight program director René Borghese said the completion process “has been seamless—we actually took delivery sooner than expected.”
A lower-cost variant of the out-of-production EC145C2, the -e model shares its predecessor’s 7,903-pound mtow but has an increased useful load, service ceiling, and endurance. Also similar to the U.S. Army’s UH-72A Lakota, the EC145e, formerly produced in Donauwörth, Germany, is now built at the same Airbus facility in Columbus, Mississippi, where the Lakota is manufactured.
Airbus Helicopters unveiled the EC145e at Heli-Expo 2015 in tandem with naming Metro as its launch customer. At the 2018 gathering, Metro placed a $125 million fleet order for 25 EC145es.
Metro has continued improving the platform, and last year partnered with Genesys AeroSystems to incorporate a single-pilot/dual-pilot IFR avionics system, representing a major update from the original basic VFR panel. The standard medical interior includes extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation, intra-aortic balloon pumps, and nitric oxide ventilation equipment.
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