Aviation Week Heli-Expo Show News Briefing - February 24-26, 2008 - (Page 18) Commercial Market for Helicopter Maintenance Pegged at $5 Billion The market for commercial helicopter maintenance, repair and overhaul is worth about $5 billion a year and is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 3.1% over the next decade, reaching $6.8 billion by 2016, says Michigan’s AeroStrategy (www.aerostrategy.com). Put another way, civil helicopter operators spend more for MRO than any other operating expense category, although fuel costs Hal Chrisman. could take the lead. The good news? Newer helicopters are less maintenance intensive. Component reliability is improving, and the growing use of health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS) is helping to reduce unscheduled maintenance and produce longer maintenance intervals for dynamic components, according to AeroStrategy principal Hal Chrisman. Greater composite content is expected to reduce nonroutine maintenance as aircraft age. MRO represents about 25% of typical operating costs. The AeroStrategy analysis looks at engine overhaul, airframe MRO, components, and modifications. AVIATION WEEK’s MRO 2008 Conference & Exhibition will be held April 15-17 in Fort Lauderdale. Fla. 10,000 Blades for American Eurocopter The American Eurocopter blade shop in Grand Prairie celebrated the repair of its 10,000th blade late last year. The historic blade belongs to an Air Methods aircraft that had come in for maintenance. The work on the blade was done by blade techs Maurice Sabourin, Julio Lopez, and Noah Torrez, with Jim Boswell for quality assurance. Eurocopter’s blade shop has grown from a 780 sq ft facility with only three employees into an 18-employee department occupying an 18,305sq ft facility in the center of the Grand Prairie campus. It averages more than 1,000 blades per year. Eurocopter is at Booth 631. Lifeport’s Lightweight Carbon Stretcher Washington State’s Lifeport, which designs, manufactures, and certifies EMS equipment for dedicated and multi-mission helicopters, is promoting a new lightweight stretcher made of high-impact carbon composite at Booth 613. The AeroSled CFS (carbon fiber sled) weighs about half as much as a conventional unit, says sales manager Noah Zuckerman. Lifeport recently gained an STC for a multi-mission medevac system for the AgustaWestland AW139, and reported the Irish Air Corps and the Government of Estonia as customers. Another new STC covers a multi-litter stacking system for the Sikorsky S-92. Rotorcraft’s New Start Pac Cart Las Vegas-based Rotorcraft Enterprises (Booth 1243) has added the model 53300 power supply cart to its line of Start Pac products. The 120-pound 53300 serves as a 28.5-volt, continuous DC power supply when plugged into a 220-volt single-phase AC power source, the manufacturer says, and can deliver “a full 300 amps DC output to power up such functions as avionics, GPS systems, onboard air-conditioning and various DC motor-driven devices.” The Model 53300 is not recommended for engine starting. Chelton Offers Broadband to VIPs Chelton Satcom is taking advantage of Heli-Expo to offer Inmarsat-approved SwiftBroadband hardware used in military helicopters for executive transport. The systems allow “office in the sky”-type connectivity, says sales chief Steve Irwin, for those occasions “when a phone call is not enough.” Separately, Chelton Flight Systems is promoting FlightLogic brand EFIS and Highway-In-The-Sky (HITS) avionics technology for helicopters. Chelton is at Booth 2819. Geneva Updates Console for AS350s Washington State’s Geneva Aviation reports FAA certification of an advanced version of its popular P132 avionics switch console. Installation “significantly expands the space in AS350 series helicopters for installation of electronic components widely used by airborne law enforcement and electronic newsgathering.” The console provides space for a 10-in stack of avionic components in convenient reach of pilot and crew, Geneva says, noting full compatibility with the latest versions of AS350B2 and AS350B3 production helicopters. Cannon plug connections make for easy installation and component changes. Geneva is a unit of Dart (Booth 2263) specializing in ENG and law enforcement. 18 www.aviationweek.com/shownews February 24, 2008 http://www.aerostrategy.com http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews
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