Helicopters – Page 216
-
News
Intrepid Explorer
Flying the MD 902 Explorer proved it to be vice-free - as befits a helicopter with a design dictated by pilots and operators Peter Gray/REDHILL The MD Explorer should be the perfect helicopter. The design was conceived in the early 1990s when McDonnell Douglas asked owners round the world what ...
-
News
Mexico LongRangers
Mexico's Attorney General's Office has ordered 24 Bell 206L-4 LongRanger helicopters for use in anti-drug missions. The $35 million deal calls for the first four machines to be delivered by December and the remaining 20 by next September. The new 206s, assembled at Bell's base in Montreal, Canada, will be ...
-
News
MD Helicopters will cut link with Boeing
Kate Sarsfield/LONDON MD Helicopters plans to sever its manufacturing ties with Boeing when the contract to build parts for the five-strong civil helicopter line is fulfilled in early 2001. "As part of the deal to buy Boeing civil helicopters, we signed a binding manufacturing agreement," says MD Helicopters chief executive ...
-
News
Samsung gets more SB427 orders from Chinese companies
South Korea's Samsung Aerospace has racked up five new Chinese orders for the Samsung Bell SB427 helicopter during the Aviation Expo China show in Beijing. The new orders bring total Chinese sales of the helicopter to six, while the worldwide orderbook stands at "about 90" aircraft, says Samsung. ...
-
News
Robinson landmark
Robinson Helicopters has delivered its 3,000th R22 single-engined, two-seat helicopter. Torrence, California-based Robinson delivered 129 new aircraft in the first half of the year - 73 four-seat R44s and 56 R22s. Source: Flight International
-
News
Mitsubishi wins full MH2000 certification
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' (MHI) MH2000 twin-turboshaft helicopter was granted full type certification by the Japanese Ministry of Transport's Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) on 24 September. Deliveries of the country's first indigenously produced helicopter have begun. The certificate upgrades the 650kW (875hp) Mitsubishi MG5-110 twin turboshaft-powered MH2000 from the limitations ...
-
News
Bristow order launches AB139
Kate Sarsfield/LONDON Bell/Agusta Aerospace has clinched the first order for its $6 million AB139 from UK operator Bristow Helicopters, three months after the 12/15-seat aircraft was unveiled. The sale of two of the medium-twin-turbine helicopters to Redhill, Surrey-based Bristow, for offshore oil support operations, is the first of what ...
-
News
Mercy missions
Air Methods is to provide expanded emergency transportation services for Iowa's Mercy Medical Center. In November, a Bell 206L-1 helicopter will join a Bell 222U in the Mercy Air Life operation to provide back-up in Des Moines and emergency medical services in Mason City. Source: Flight International
-
News
Sloane delivery
Sloane Helicopters has taken delivery of the first UK-registered emergency medical services-equipped Agusta A109E Power. The Automobile Association-sponsored twin will be delivered by the end of the year to the Thames Valley Air ambulance service. Source: Flight International
-
News
Schweizer distributor
Schweizer Aircraft has appointed Eli-Alpi of Rivanazzano, Italy, and Hahn Helicopter of Lautzenhausen, Germany, as distributors of its Model 300C, 300CB and 330 light helicopters. Source: Flight International
-
News
Eurocopter order
Eurocopter has signed a contract with the Hong Kong Government for the sale of eight helicopters to be operated by Hong Kong's Government Flying Service (GFS). The $93.4 million contract covers three Eurocopter AS 332 L2 Super Puma helicopters and five EC55Bs. The aircraft will be based at Hong Kong's ...
-
News
P&WC begins work on PW127 variant
Pratt & Whitney Canada has begun work on a turboshaft version of its PW127 turboprop, initially to power the Mil Mi-38 helicopter to be developed by Mil, Kazan and Eurocopter. There is no other turboshaft in the PW127T/S' class, says P&WC vice-president, marketing and international business, Joe Torchetti. The ...
-
News
Sikorsky widens Shares offer
Kate Sarsfield/LONDON Sikorsky plans to extend its Sikorsky Shares fractional ownership programme to California and Florida next year and to Europe in 2001, as the concept of helicopter sharing gains acceptance. "We hope to have sold our first S-76C+ by the end of the year and to have three ...
-
News
Malaysia Airlines offers first class helicopter chauffeur service
To attract premium-class passengers, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will introduce a helicopter chauffeur service next month for its first class passengers flying from London Heathrow. Helicopter pick-ups can be made within a 60-mile (95km) radius of the airport. The service is free for passengers holding full-fare first class tickets for flights ...
-
News
Schweizer milestone
Schweizer Aircraft's piston-engined Model 300CB helicopter fleet has exceeded 100,000h flying time since entering service in late 1995. Elmira, New York-based Schweizer says the 300CB, primarily a training aircraft, has only suffered five accidents, with no fatalities. Source: Flight International
-
News
Kamov is key to merger moves
Russian rotorcraft specialist Kamov is to form the basis of an integrated helicopter company, with its design bureau combined with production plants at Kumertau and Arsenyev, in accordance with a government directive. The move is likely to mean the demise of Kamov's alliance with VPK MAPO. The Kumertau factory produces ...
-
News
FAA grounds Eurocopter BK117s and BO105s
The US Federal Aviation Administration has followed the recommendations of the German airworthiness authority and issued emergency airworthiness directives (ADs) grounding Eurocopter BK117 and BO105 helicopters until tension-torsion (TT) straps contained in the main rotor head are inspected and replaced as required. The US aviation agency says that 130 ...
-
News
Robinson R44 wins US hydraulic flight control approval
Robinson has won US approval of the customised hydraulic flight control system for its four-seat R44 - nearly a decade after the concept was touted. The Torrance, California-based manufacturer predicts a sales boost for the $290,000 hydraulically controlled light piston-engined helicopter, which costs $13,000 more than the standard model. ...
-
News
Proven pedigree
Low cost, low noise and low vibration led Eurocopter's design priorities for its AS350B3 Peter Gray/MARIGNANE Eurocopter's AS350B3 has a long pedigree. It is the latest version of a helicopter intended to succeed the popular Alouette and Lama, both of which have established a reputation for high reliability and ...
-
News
Helicopter fractional is poised for launch
Kate Sarsfield/LONDON The first UK-based helicopter fractional ownership programme aimed at the European market is scheduled for launch on 1 September by helicopter sales and training company Skyhopper. The Marlow-based firm, which acquired Virgin Helicopters in August last year, will kick-start its helicopter "retained charter" programme simultaneously. "We were originally ...