Articles for category Company Profiles
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Sep
12
2022
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Posted by Admin
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“I never really thought I’d have the title “Vice President” in front of my name. Coming out of the Army as basically an A&P mechanic, I never really thought my career would reach this level; it’s a pretty daunting responsibility to be honest,” says Vice President Kip McDermott of night vision leader Aviation Specialties Unlimited (ASU) in Boise, Idaho. His current responsibilities seem daunting for sure: working with government regulators all over the world, writing test plans, certification plans, and wrangling designated engineering representatives (DERs) up for engineering reports, overseeing a Part 145 repair station along with ASU’s Part 135 and Part 141 flight operations groups, as well as being responsible for supplemental type certificate (STC) certification and ASU’s highly regarded night vision goggle (NVG) lab would “daunt” any executive, but McDermott is confident he can handle his lengthy list. If he loses his grip, he says there’s help, “The saving grace of it all is that I’ve got good guys I’m working with; I don’t have to micromanage them (I’ve never been a micromanager and will never be.) They make my job easier; if I drop something, they pick it up.”
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Tags:
Aviation Specialites Unlimited
Executive Watch
Kip McDermott ASU
RotorPro Executive Watch
Categories:
Company Profiles
Career Development
Opinion-Editorial
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Sep
08
2022
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Posted by Admin
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The Mesa, Arizona helicopter manufacturer, emerges from bankruptcy ready to stabilize and support customers with an eye on future growth.
Brad Pedersen, the newly announced president of MD Helicopters LLC, is no-nonsense regarding the company's future. After three years of working through a bankruptcy process with a compilation of companies, Pedersen said that MD Helicopters is ready to focus on its core business – the customers and after-market support. The 35-year aerospace veteran said that the company is financially strong, and the bankruptcy was a collateralized loan fund that included ownership of several companies. It wasn't a bankruptcy borne of poor financial management.
By Jennifer Ferrero
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Tags:
Brad Pedersen
MD 500
MD 530F
MD Helicopter New Ownership
MD Helicopters New Leadership
MD Helicopters President Brad Pedersen
Categories:
Helicopter Event Coverage
Company Profiles
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Aug
29
2022
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Posted by Admin
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Beginning with this issue, our vertical lift industry media company Rotorcraft Pro, will rebrand itself to be Rotor Pro in order to broaden its horizons in an evolving industry.
The word “Rotorcraft” in our current brand has served us well for more than a decade, but the industry is rapidly changing and it’s too narrow a focus when considering aircraft advances such as powered-lift, eVTOL, unmanned, and urban air mobility.
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Tags:
Editor Lyn Burks
Rotorcraft Pro
RotorPro
Categories:
Company Profiles
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Jul
18
2022
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Posted by Admin
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Another aviation team that bolsters the city and its surroundings is the Las Vegas Metro Police Department (LVMPD) Air Support/Search and Rescue Section. Director Steve Morris, says that the unit’s mission is clear: Provide air support to all sections of the department and any concurrent jurisdictions within Clark County. Their law enforcement helicopter operations date back to 1969 when the City of Las Vegas Police purchased and operated a Hughes 300. In 1973, the Las Vegas PD and the Clark County Sheriff’s Office merged and became the unit it is today. In the decades since then the program has flown Hughes 300, MD 500 (C,D,E), and two retired Air Force Bell HH-1H Hueys. Today, the unit flies one Airbus H145 in search and rescue configuration and three MD 530FFs in LE configuration.
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Tags:
Airbus H145 SAR
Churchill ARS 700 georeferenced moving map system
Goodrich hoisting
Helionix
inserting tactical teams
L3 Wescam MX-10 camera/sensor
Las Vegas Metro Police Air Support
law enforcement helicopter operations
MD530 FF LE Configuration
sling loading
synthetic vision cockpit technology
the aircraft and tactical flight officer (TFO)
Categories:
Company Profiles
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Jul
03
2022
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Posted by Admin
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There is a unique city in the heart of Europe that is nicknamed the “City of a Hundred Spires.” This magical city allows one to get lostin the labyrinth of its narrow streets in the inspiring old city center and enjoy the breathtaking views while standing on its beloved Charles Bridge. Prague is a romantic, ancient city, but it’s also vibrant, successful, and cosmopolitan.
Yet, the skies of Prague don't just display its amazing church spires, but also contain a great deal of aircraft flying in and out of the airport as Prague is where Bell Textron has offices in Europe located at the Prague Vaclav Havel International Airport (LKPR). It’s where the only Bell owned service facility in Europe is located.
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Tags:
Bell 429 approved facility in Europe
Bell Amsterdam Distribution Center
Bell Helicopter
Bell Helicopter Maintenance Facility Prague
Bell Textron Prague
Rotor Blade UK
Categories:
Company Profiles
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May
16
2022
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Posted by Admin
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Airbus Helicopters has operated for 30 years from Marignane, France. The company started as Eurocopter but was renamed to Airbus Helicopters in 2014. This spring, they’ve announced massive changes to new aircraft, customer support and training, and the integration of the newest technology in modern helicopters.
Airbus Helicopters has its main assembly facilities in France and Germany and a worldwide presence with 31 customer centers and affiliated sites in locations such as Brazil, Australia, Spain, United States, Romania, and the United Kingdom. The North American Customer Support division has new leadership in Niko Szodruch for its 800 customers, operating from Grand Prairie, Texas. He came from the company’s global helicopter maintenance and retrofit business and is leading in development of a strategic service plan for North America. The H125 is the best-selling helicopter in the world and there are 30 produced each year from Columbus, Mississippi. The volume of helicopters sold varies year-over-year, but in 2021, they sold 419 units to both civilian and military markets.
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Categories:
Company Profiles
Helicopter Sectors
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May
09
2022
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Posted by Admin
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“Timing is everything,” says Marek Polcak, CEO and co-founder of the Czech Republic-based technology company that he hopes is timed to transform rotary- and fixed-wing aviation training. That company, Vrgineers Inc., has a unique spelling that reflects its unique combination of technology it is introducing to aviation. The first two letters are pronounced as individual letters: V-R-gineers. That captures what Polcak and his team do—they are virtual reality (VR) engineers creating realistic training scenarios in virtual- and mixed-reality systems that put civilian and military pilots into certain scenarios that allow the training of more tactics or missions than a normal simulator.
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Tags:
Marek Polcak
Rotorcraft Pro Executive Watch
Vrgineers Inc
Categories:
Company Profiles
Opinion-Editorial
Human Interest
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Apr
18
2022
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Posted by Admin
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There will always be a place in maintenance repair & overhaul (MRO) services for wrench-turning mechanics using their grease-honed handiwork to keep helicopters flying. However, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo Helicopter, Sikorsky (a Lockheed Martin company) and the Robinson Helicopter Company are harnessing the power of digital technology to bring their customers the very best in MRO services. Here are some of the advances that will improve MRO services that might be used by our readers in the year to come.
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Tags:
Helicopter Technology
Categories:
Company Profiles
Helicopter Sectors
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Mar
28
2022
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Posted by Admin
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The first impression is that Larry Alexandre seems not properly placed to lead United Rotorcraft, a well-known maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) leader that specializes in customizing helicopter medevac interiors one aircraft at a time. Alexandre is passionate about Lean, the practice of creating a more effective business by eliminating wasteful practices and focusing on value creation for customers. “Very few MROs in our industry believe that Lean principles apply in our world, often because they believe it is only for high volume manufacturing. I’m a big believer in and practitioner of Lean principles to rally an entire team around making your business better (through efficiency) and creating value for your customers.” Earlier in his career when he worked in Operations at Turbomeca, Alexandre says, “I enjoyed taking inefficient practices, often rampant in fragmented industries like the helicopter industry, and making them more efficient and process-oriented. I started each day with the belief that anyone in the team, with the right focus, could find waste in their processes, eliminate it, and improve efficiency.”
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Tags:
Larry Alexandre
Larry Alexandre President
United Rotorcraft
Categories:
Company Profiles
Human Interest
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Jan
31
2022
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Posted by Admin
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Since the 19th century, mountain huts high on the Arolla glacier have been maintained by the Swiss Alpine Club and its guardian/managers. These huts are an integral part of the Alps and local culture. For most of those decades the huts were supplied by people and animals. Beasts of burden and highly conditioned guides got the job done. The journey was long and dangerous because of uncertain, hostile weather. The extreme environment limited access to only a select, conditioned few.
Nowadays, restocking supplies and transporting people is done by helicopter. With a few minutes of flight, the helicopter delivers what would take days to do on foot. Up to 700 kilograms (approx. 1,500 pounds) of supplies are packed in bags big enough to give Santa envy. Helicopters make these mountain refuges surrounded by natural beauty accessible to more than the fitness elite. Food, gas, groceries, and wood are flown in a timely manner to serve adventurous travellers with an overnight, relaxing stay and hearty meal
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Tags:
Air-Glacier
Heli-Skiing
Swiss Helicopter Operators
Categories:
Company Profiles