Heli-Expo - AINalerts

February 29, 2016

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HAI Head Still Bullish on Helo Market On the eve of the start of Heli-Expo 2016 in Louisville, Helicopter Association International president Matt Zuccaro remains bullish about the status of the industry, despite the definite headwinds faced by some sectors. “One thing I think we all realize and acknowledge is the offshore industry right now is not performing the way we would like it to,” Zuccaro told AIN on Sunday at the Kentucky Exposition Center, noting the recent slump in rotorcraft usage and postponed orders due to depressed energy prices. “I’ve been doing this long enough that in effect this has happened previously and the good news to this story is we’ve always recovered and come back stronger.” While that specific segment has encountered a sustained slowdown, Zuccaro noted increases in sectors such as air medical and air tours among others, which have helped buoy the industry somewhat on the aggregate and allowed operators to seek new opportunities. “They’ve moved into other areas of business in order to keep those aircraft active and to keep their personnel employed, flying and maintaining,” he said. “They’re doing what we do best; we’re survivors and we take advantage of the versatility of the aircraft to do other missions while waiting for their main segments to recover.”

Bell’s Snyder Focusing on Innovation Mitch Snyder assumed the helm as president and CEO of Bell Helicopter late last year following the resignation of John Garrison. He said not to expect any big changes at Bell under his administration, but “you'll see increased emphasis on innovation.” Even in a challenging market, Snyder said Bell will continue high levels of spending on innovation, research and development to both refresh existing products and bring transformative technologies to market. “We’re going to continue to do the product refreshes we’ve been doing, but we are putting a lot more emphasis into those big leaps in technology that are going to be the game changers. I won’t tell you exactly what we are working on, but we are going to be exploring a lot of new areas. We do have a list and we are working on them.” Bell is increasing spending on R&D, but Snyder declined to reveal the amount. He hinted that new models may be coming. “We’re putting a heavy emphasis on product refresh, but I really want to spend some money now on technology types. It could be a new airframe, a new clean-sheet [design] or an upgrade to an existing product. We will be increasing that spending. There are no time frames. When I say I’m thinking of some clean-sheet designs, that’s out in the future.” Read Expanded Version

Sikorsky Progresses on Autonomous Technologies Sikorsky’s Innovations group continues to progress on a spectrum of autonomous technologies as it preps its third optionally piloted helicopter for demonstration trials early next year. The company has been retrofitting a 1979 UH-60A obtained from the U.S. Army with a kit that incorporates its complete Matrix technology from full-authority control to other technologies that pave the way for autonomous missions. “We want to demonstrate the fact that you don’t have to design this technology in new aircraft. You can retrofit it in old aircraft and retrofit it in a reliable fashion,” said Igor Cherepinsky, chief of Sikorsky’s Autonomy Programs. The aged Black Hawk is the next step of Sikorsky’s Matrix program, which has demonstrated a range of autonomous capabilities from technologies that assist the pilot to aircraft remotely controlled on the ground that can interface with remote-controlled ground vehicles. The program, Cherepinsky said, is designed to look at “a spectrum of what is needed most for assistance. That goes anywhere from making current products safer and easier to fly…to automating missions where the pilot starts to become more of a mission operator or a mission manager.” Sikorsky is exploring possibilities where the operator could be in the back of the aircraft or on the ground.