Leonardo revealed an estimated $420 million in helicopter orders on the opening day of Heli-Expo 2022, kicking off what OEMs hope will be a sales bonanza at the rotorcraft show. The Italian aerospace company racked up a double-digit firm order for the AW139 medium twin and commitments for AW609 civil tiltrotors.
The Helicopter Company (THC) of Saudi Arabia placed an order for 16 more Leonardo AW139s, with an option for seven more, worth $300 million. Deliveries will begin later this year and extend over the next three years, with the new aircraft joining an existing THC fleet of seven AW139s.
In addition, Leonardo inked an $18.6 million deal yesterday for two AW169s with German operator HeliService to support an offshore wind farm in Taiwan starting in mid-2023. HeliService already operates three AW169s for other wind-farm-support operations.
Meanwhile, Leonardo has signed a four-ship AW609 civil tiltrotor deal with an undisclosed, long-established European operator of its helicopters. The customer plans to carry out a range of passenger transport missions supporting its point-to-point operations worldwide and its tiltrotors thus will have different dedicated configurations, including VIP/corporate and passenger/utility transport. Leonardo did not release a value of the order but AIN estimates it could be worth $100 million.
Former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member and chairman Robert Sumwalt has again made the case for increased helicopter IFR and development of a low-level route structure to support it as a long-term strategy to avoid accidents related to encounters with inadvertent IMC.
“The NTSB, years ago, did call for an enhanced low route structure to accommodate IFR helicopter traffic, and that needs to move forward. It is much safer to have a well-trained, well-qualified, proficient pilot in a helicopter that is capable of operating in IFR conditions.” Sumwalt said.
Sumwalt, who began his tenure as a distinguished fellow in aviation safety and executive director of the new Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety in January, praised the “great promise” for the increased use of virtual reality and augmented reality in flight training, but cautioned against misuse that would “give the wrong results.”
“It would not be constructive if we choose to simulate, for example, flying into [inadvertent] IMC and the pilot says, ‘Okay, I can easily fly through this [and] get out of it.’ It has to simulate the right potential. I wouldn't want to be falsely building confidence, but I think it does hold great promise for better-prepared pilots,” Sumwalt said, particularly in the area of pilot reaction to inadvertent IMC. “We would love to be able to do that research.”
Martin Stucki—the founder of Marenco Swisscopter and the creator of the SH09 helicopter—is back with a new hybrid-electric helicopter concept and looking for investors. Swisscopter is now the Kopter division of Leonardo and the helicopter that he first envisioned there, announced in 2011, remains under development as the rebadged AW09. Since leaving Swisscopter in 2016, Stucki has focused on operating his engineering company, Marenco, which he founded in 1997.
Stucki’s new aircraft design is similar to the SH09 but features a longer, all-carbon-fiber fuselage with seating for up to nine plus the pilot. It is planned to be powered by a 1,000-shp turbine generator/engine that provides power to separate electric motors that drive the main and tail rotors, as well as charge a backup battery pack for emergency power for autorotations and high-altitude approaches. The design eliminates mechanical connections between the turbine and the main rotor, yielding a design that is simpler and safer, Stucki said.
“A lot of things that could go wrong are eliminated, but it is otherwise a conventional helicopter. Any helicopter pilot can fly it, which makes it a lot different than these fancy eVTOLs that need flight-control software,” he said. Preliminary performance targets are three hours’ endurance and a fast cruise speed of 140 knots, he told AIN. Marenco’s new design is currently in the “conceptual and financing phase,” the company said.
Airbus Helicopters is revamping its HCare customer support program to be more flexible and customizable, the French rotorcraft manufacturer announced at Heli-Expo 2022. “Customers told us that they did not like the one-size-fits-all approach,” said Christoph Zammert, the company’s executive v-p of customer support and services. “The HCare Smart and HCare Infinite programs were perceived as too rigid, too complex, and not very understandable. So we have reshuffled and repackaged HCare to make sure it is as flexible as possible.”
The redesigned HCare program is more modular and offers customers the ability to pick and choose according to their needs and “the level of risk they would like to transfer to us—the OEM,” according to Zammert. It starts out with HCare Initial for customers beginning operations with a new Airbus helicopter or taking delivery of a new aircraft type in their fleet. HCare In-service marks the next step and is for customers already operating an Airbus helicopter.
Meanwhile, HCare Lifetime—which combines the Initial and In-service programs—is for operators opting for an end-to-end package and long-term collaboration with Airbus, spanning the aircraft's service entry to end of life. These customers receive “daily care” and accompaniment at all steps of their operations, Airbus stressed, adding that HCare Lifetime aims to maximize the aircraft’s performance and sustain value over time.
Paraclete Aviation Life Support has added Global-Sys wireless communication technology to its pilot helmet product line, eliminating headset wires from the cockpit and enhancing communication among flight crewmembers. Paraclete is an authorized reseller for North America for the Global-Sys product.
Global-Sys’s Airlink 3085 mobile unit can be adapted to multiple aircraft and mission types in less than five minutes, according to Dominique Retali, CEO of the Bonneuil Sur Marne, France-based company. The Airlink system consists of a portable base unit that is carried in the helicopter and plugged into existing audio jacks. A base unit communicates wirelessly to crewmembers wearing Paraclete flight helmets via the Airlink mobile unit, which is lightweight and small enough to fit into a flight suit pocket.
The mobile unit employs digital noise reduction on the microphone side to electronically eliminate ambient noise, and it provides full-duplex communication. “It gives clear audio communications during missions for crews and rescuers to be in touch,” said Retali. “The RF is band-reserved and cannot be jammed or disrupted by another network.”
Coupled with the Paraclete helmets’ passive or active noise-reduction, which uses Lightspeed’s helicopter ANR system, he added that communication is “significantly improved.”
Battery life of the mobile unit is 12 hours, and the base unit can be wired to ship power or can run on batteries.
The digital flip-through issues of AIN’s award-winning HAI Convention News are now available online. It’s a great way to quickly scan the news from HAI Heli-Expo 2022, whether you’re in Dallas attending the show or watching from afar.
Since the price of oil plunged during the pandemic, many helicopters that were previously flying offshore oil and gas missions have been logging fewer hours. Seeking to find a new mission for the heavy twin Sikorsky S-92A, helicopter lessor Milestone Aviation has partnered with Australia’s Helitak to equip the helicopter for firefighting. Helitak’s FT5000—a 1,050 gallon, collapsible, belly-mounted fire suppression tank—made its debut this week at Heli-Expo 2022 in Dallas.
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