The U.S. Defense Department on Thursday said it awarded Boeing Co a $922.63 million modification to a contract for 117 AH-64E remanufactured Apache helicopters for the U.S. Army. The work will be done in Mesa, Arizona, and the completion date is estimated at May 31, 2018, the department said in a statement.
Bell Helicopter announces plans to showcase the performance capabilities and luxury interior of the Bell 429 MAGnificent through a series of customer demo flights in South America. Bell Helicopter last demonstrated the Bell 429’s capability in a five-month demo tour in 2014, and customers continue to respond. To date, there are more than 60 Bell 429s operating throughout Latin Americ...
Airbus Helicopters has begun test flights for its German armed forces customer as part of a research and technology programme to develop a hostile fire indication (HFI) system. Using a modified German army Sikorsky CH-53G helicopter, the manufacturer performed the first evaluation sortie on 30 March, from Manching, to study the integration and effects on handling qualities of a number of sensor...
Airbus Helicopters has concluded its H215 demonstrator tour across the US. The aircraft was then put on static display at the Aerial Firefighting International event in Sacramento, California. The three week long tour included flights for more than 100 people, including 40 pilots. The helicopter flew 63 flight hours and covered nearly 6,000 miles (9,500 km). The H215 – previously marke...
In late March the EASA issued a Notice of Proposed Amendment (NPA) aimed at improving certification rules for helicopters operating over water. At issue is the creation of realistic requirements about keeping the aircraft upright and easing passenger egress. Comments are due by June 23, and the agency expects to publish the new regulation in the third quarter. According to the&nb...
The expeditionary group of Russia’s Air and Space Force (VKS, formerly the Russian air force) started using two new types of attack rotorcraft—the Mil Mi-28 “Night Hunter” and Kamov Ka-52 “Alligator”—in Syria. Previously, the service relied on two less capable, older types: the Mi-8 utility and Mi-24 assault helicopters. One Mi-8 was lost during a rescue o...
Bell Helicopter has been put on contract to build nine more AH-1Z Viper gunship helicopters for Pakistan, as part of a larger foreign military sales package for up to 15 helicopters and 1,000 Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire-series missiles that was approved last April. Islamabad ordered its first batch of armed, twin-engine “Zulu Cobras” under that deal in August, as part of a larg...
Dallas-based Protective Packaging Corp (PPC) has preserved a Sikorsky S-92 for Bristow Helicopters that became surplus to requirements due to the oil price downturn. The company needed to protect the aircraft from corrosion, and other environmental factors until the market conditions improve. A requirement from the operator also included the need to rotate the blades periodically du...
Russian Helicopters, part of State Corporation Rostec, has fulfilled its first contract for after-sale maintenance of multirole Mi-17-1V helicopters operated by the Mexican Navy. “This is our first contract with the Naval Secretariat of Mexico. It was fulfilled in full and on time,” said Igor Chechikov, Russian Helicopter's deputy CEO. “Mexico is one of our key partn...
The Turkish government’s procurement agency has released a request for information (RFI) for options on purchasing a coast guard aircraft. The Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM) said that planned missions of the aircraft will be controlling naval sovereign zones in the Mediterranean. Tasks will include performing reconnaissance flights to help control illegal immigration on the...
A $151 million contract awarded to V-22 tiltrotor manufacturer Bell-Boeing this week allows engineers to get started designing the US Navy’s future Osprey variant, the CMV-22B, which is replacing the Northrop Grumman C-2 Greyhound twin turboprop in the aircraft carrier logistics role at sea. Based on the US Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey variant, the navy’s “CMV” tiltrotor w...
Bond Offshore Helicopters has been awarded a new three-year contract to provide offshore crew transport on behalf of Premier Oil. Bond will service Premier’s offshore platforms in the North Sea, including their new Solan field, which is expected to deliver oil shortly. The contract, which begins this month, will be operated out of Bond’s Aberdeen facility, although the company...
