BLR Aerospace (Booth No. 5743) is known among rotorcraft operators for its conceptually simple, yet highly effective, FastFin aerodynamic tail rotor enhancement for several popular Bell utility helicopters. The company notes that sales have grown by 30 percent among government and military clients over the past two years, with FastFin installations on more than 650 helicopters for approximately 380 customers worldwide.

BLR Aerospace v-p of sales and marketing Dave Marone wants to grow that number, and throughout Heli-Expo 2014 BLR will provide customized return-on-investment (ROI) reports, tailored to the operator’s specific mission parameters, demonstrating what FastFin could offer to potential customers’ fleets.

“We will instantaneously print out a customized ROI report to any organization that would like a custom analysis,” he told AIN. “They’ll see the amount of useful load increase and increased wind azimuth tolerance, as well as a full money-out cost assessment and how long it would take to recover that amount.”

Using tailboom-mounted parallel strakes and a subtly reshaped vertical fin, FastFin improves tail rotor authority by better managing airflow off the main rotor blades across the tailboom. BLR notes FastFin may increase a helicopter’s useful load by 10 to 90 percent, depending on application, with related improvements to high-density-altitude performance and operational stability.

FastFin installations are available for Bell UH-1, 204, 205, 212, and 412 models. While BLR has focused exclusively on Bell helicopters, Marone said flight-testing is under way on FastFin applications to four different aircraft models from three other OEMs. “Within the next 12 to 18 months, we hope to be expanding our coverage to provide the same category of benefits across a broader swath of the industry,” he concluded.