A French Internet spare parts supplier claims to save customers up to 25 percent on their repair bills. Now able to deal directly with its vendors, Helinetwork.com says it can pass on the savings to its customers.
Rotorcraft
News and issues regarding all manner of civil and military rotorcraft and their powerplants, including helicopters, tiltrotors and unmanned air vehicles.
October 16, 2006 - 8:36am
Robinson has handed over its 6,000th helicopter–an R44 Raven II–to a Canadian customer. John Wadlow of Alberta, Canada-based Airborne Energy Solutions flew the new acquisition from Robinson’s Torrance, Calif. facility for use in the company’s charter fleet.
October 16, 2006 - 8:35am
The Republic of Korea agreed to buy three S-92s to fulfill its presidential mission. Sikorsky will deliver them in a VIP configuration beginning in 2007. The Korean Ministry of National Defense selected the helicopter over the AgustaWestland EH-101, which will carry the U.S. President.
October 16, 2006 - 8:33am
Enstrom has sold two helicopters, a turbine 480B and a piston 280FX, to Hanseo University in South Korea. The university made the announcement at the opening ceremony for a new airfield it built to train fixed- and rotary-wing pilots, mechanics and air traffic controllers.
October 12, 2006 - 5:04am
Paul A. Schweizer, soaring pioneer and the second of three brothers who founded Schweizer Aircraft in the 1930s, died on August 18 at the age of 91 in Elmira, N.Y. Long out of the sailplane business, Schweizer Aircraft has since expanded into airframe subcontracting work and helicopter development and manufacturing but is still family-run.
October 11, 2006 - 7:10am
Watch for the NTSB soon to release recommendations intended to improve the safety of EMS helicopter operations.
October 10, 2006 - 6:38am
Bell/Agusta’s BA609 looks nothing like the finished article in the VMSIL. In place of a fuselage and wings, the tiltrotor’s systems, interfaced with an aircraft flight-simulation host computer, are spread across three separate areas in the lab.
October 10, 2006 - 6:38am
Pietro Venanzi took the left seat in the BA609 during the tiltrotor’s return to flight status, at Bell’s XworX center near Fort Worth, Texas, on June 3. The 80-minute hop in aircraft one (A/C1), witnessed by AIN, was not the Italian test pilot’s first time at the controls of the tiltrotor. He had taken them on several occasions alongside project test pilot Roy Hopkins, during the first flight-test phase between February and June 2003.
October 10, 2006 - 6:33am
At last month’s American Helicopter Society forum in Grapevine, Texas, several OEMs unveiled entirely new projects or reported major progress on projects under development. Two of those new projects are based on original designs that first flew more than 50 years ago. Of particular interest, given recent history, is that all but one of the designs are the result of American research and development.
October 10, 2006 - 6:30am
The relaunched helicopter service between the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo carried more than 500 passengers in its first month of operation.
Helisureste from Spain officially took the reins from Malta Aircharter in March.
The company’s EASA-compliant Bell 412 can carry 13 passengers on as many as nine flights per day.
