Chad is the editor of AINalerts, AIN's daily business aviation newsletter, and is also the news editor at AIN Media Group.&nbsp;He has been writing about aviation, with an emphasis on business aviation, since 1994. Chad started his writing career at The Avion,&nbsp;the&nbsp;student newspaper at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, serving as editor-in-chief before graduating with a bachelor's in aeronautical science. After a stint as managing editor at Professional Pilot&nbsp;magazine, he joined&nbsp;AIN in late 1998. Chad holds a commercial pilot certificated with instrument and multi-engine ratings, and he also is a CFI/CFII. He lives and works from his home in Venice, Florida.

Online Editor

Chad Trautvetter

Dwayne Williams, a helicopter pilot who has logged more than 16,000 hours of accident-free flying, is this year’s recipient of the HAI Salute to Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award. This award honors excellence in management and leadership and is granted to an individual for long and significant service to the international helicopter community.

 


Since Williams learned to fly helicopters in 1965 with the U.S. Army, he has racked up 57 years of experience flying combat, offshore oil-support, flight-training, and test-pilot operations. After a tour in Vietnam, he spent two years as an instructor pilot at Fort Wolters, Texas. Post military, he flew offshore missions in the Gulf of Mexico for Petroleum Helicopters Inc. for almost five years.

 


From 1974 to 1979, Williams trained Iranian Army pilots in Isfahan for Bell. Upon returning to the U.S., he joined Bell as a production test pilot, demonstration pilot, and international delivery pilot. He later transferred to Bell’s experimental test-pilot staff and in 2000 became Bell’s chief pilot. At Bell’s Flight Research Center, he was the first to fly the Model 206L3, 400, AH-4BW SuperCobra, and 230. He was also a test pilot on the Bell XV-15 tiltrotor and Bell/Agusta BA609 tiltrotor.

 


After retiring from Bell in 2005, Williams became chief pilot and director of flight operations at MD Helicopters. In 2013, he joined Marenco as chief test pilot on the SH09, performing the aircraft’s first test flight. Today, he serves as chief test pilot and certification pilot for Aero Dynamix, which designs cockpits that are night-vision goggle&nbsp;compatible.

News and issues regarding all manner of civil and military rotorcraft and their powerplants, including helicopters, tilt rotors and unmanned air vehicles.

57-year Pilot Dwayne Williams Lands HAI Lifetime Award

Dwayne Williams, a helicopter pilot with more than 16,000 hours of accident-free flying, is the 2022 winner of HAI's Lifetime Achievement Award.

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Neelam Mathews

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

Single-engined rotorcraft will compete with Hindustan Aeronautics’ Light Utility Helicopter

Tata and Airbus Set To Build H125 Helicopters in India

Charles Alcock

News and developments about aircraft engines, including turbofan, turboprop, turboshaft and piston.

News and issues relating to civil and military unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) of all kinds and sizes, including those used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), combat (unmanned combat air vehicles, or UCAVs), law enforcement, research and other applications. Of particular focus is the FAA's planned integration of UAS into the U.S. national airspace system.

Essential news and analysis on the defense aerospace business. Your trusted source for new and ongoing programs and requirements in military aircraft (manned and unmanned), engines, avionics, weapons and associated systems, including ground-based air defense.

Evacuation of Ukrainian troops from Mariupol inspired efforts to "reinvent helicopters"

Lithuanian Start-up Takes New Approach to Emergency Air Mobility

Matt Thurber

News and information on safety procedures and concerns.

System would encourage operators to add equipment to prevent accidents

VAST Effort Explores Helicopter Safety Rating System

Aero Asset’s annual report noted a four-year peak in supply in Q4 2024

Single-engine Helicopter Market Stable, Supply Climbs

Helicopter sales for 2024 climbed 10% over 2023, including 58 Super Pumas

Airbus Helicopter Deliveries, Orders Climb During 2024

News and issues concerning the aviation charter and fractional-ownership industries and markets, including company announcements, regulations, new developments and labor issues.

Purchase marks company’s first investment in utility helicopter segment

Fundamental Advisors Acquires Utility Operator HeloAir

News and issues about aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), covering all segments of the aviation industry; and modifications for aircraft and engines. Subjects include product support of aircraft, engines and avionics, MRO company mergers, acquisitions, announcements and personnel, Airworthiness Directives, Supplemental Type Certificate approvals and other topics.

Works includes new avionics, fresh paint, ultra-leather seats, and pop-out floats

Meridian Delivers 29th Refurbished Bell 206 to FlyNYON

Jessica Reed

Issues regarding financing of aircraft; aviation insurance; tax issues for aircraft operators; new companies and people in the aviation financing and insurance industries.

News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

HAI Heli-Expo 2022

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