Aviation Week Heli-Expo Show News Briefing - February 24-26, 2008 - (Page 4) Bell Plans a Raft of Derivatives Sikorsky’s Schweizer Launches the 434, Born of the Fire Scout What goes around, comes around When Northrop Grumman adopted the RQ-4A Fire Scout helicopter based on the Schweizer 333, little did anyone guess that the need for more payload would spawn a new Schweizer commercial helicopter. But the improvements that resulted in the MQ-4B Fire Scout have been translated back into the civil line to produce the Schweizer 434 turbine single with more power and a four-bladed rotor. “Inherited advantages of the 333 design ensure that benefits such as a cockpit layout with excellent visibility from all crew positions, superior flight handling characteristics and exceptional safety and crashworthiness features are being retained,” the manufacturer says. The 434 is being launched at Heli-Expo 2008 in Houston with 15 orders, including nine for Saudi Arabia government training. “It will be very competitive with the Eurocopter EC120,” says Steve Estill, Sikorsky vp for worldwide sales. “With a four-bladed rotor system, increased power and a larger fuel tank, the S-434 helicopter will fly farther and faster while having a larger useful load than its predecessor,” said Schweizer aircraft president Paul Schweizer. Schweizer is at Booth 2040, adjacent to Sikorsky’s Booth 1641. Bell Helicopter might have slashed its product line to just three models, but these will form the core for new derivatives to meet the demands of different markets, says sales and marketing svp Bob Fitzpatrick. Look for a new configuration for the light 407 single, and a new medium twin based on the Bell 412. Also in the works: a higher gross weight version of the ultra-large cabin 429 light twin (shown), as well as a single-engined version. All will incorporate advanced technologies from Bell’s MAPL program to develop more efficient, productive and affordable helicopters. Fitzpatrick discusses Bell’s product strategy on Page 30. Rolls-Royce Certifies Its RR300 Rolls-Royce (Booth 1917) certified its new RR300 engine in late December. “We were able to complete the design, development and certification of this engine in just under 24 months,” acting helicopters business president Ken Roberts told Show News. “The product itself has met or exceeded all of the technical requirements we’ve set for it. We’ve squarely hit the head of the nail.” Launch platform for the RR300 is the R66, the first-ever turbine by Robinson (Booth 2531), which began flying last year. Rolls has development memoranda too with Enstrom, MD, and Schweizer. “There’s a broad level of interest in this market for a turbine in this power range,” Roberts says. Sikorsky Delivers the 700th S-76 Sikorsky recently delivered the 700th S-76 light twin helicopter as the program finished celebrating its 30th anniversary. Merck & Co., took delivery of No. 700, an S-76C++, at the end of January; some 200 operators in 37 countries have now logged more than 4.7 million flight hours on the type. Backlog for the S-76 now stands at around 180 aircraft—it is sold out for ‘08 and nearly full for ‘09, and Sikorsky has 100 deposit agreements for the S-76D, which will come on stream in 2010. “So we have only a few (slots) to sell for ‘09 before we transition 100% to the D model,” said Steve Estill, Sikorsky worldwide sales vp. Enstrom Likes Its Police Prospects Enstrom Booth (Booth 2231) has sold another of its 480B turbine singles (with new Chelton EFIS) to Plaquemine Parish in Louisiana, boosting expectations of further police sales of the $889,500 machine. The aircraft is the third 480B for U.S. law enforcement and the 23rd worldwide for police work, says Enstrom president and CEO Jerry Mullins. He’s also logged a sale of six F28Fs to the Peruvian Navy, which will use them as trainers. At home, Enstrom is offering a new variant for training, the F28FT. Enstrom has new dealers in Turkey, the Philippines and Austin: Travland Helicopters. An F28F is shown here. Silver State Helicopters Shuts Down On one day the firm's website boasted a fleet of more than 200 aircraft and six-year sales growth of 963%, on the next it stated that Silver State Helicopters had gone into Chapter 7 (liquidation) bankruptcy. Blamed: “a rapid, unprecedented downturn in the U.S. credit markets, which severely curtailed the availability of student loans for the company’s flight academy students and resulted in a sharp and sudden downturn in new student enrollment.” Silver State previously claimed "a business model that is unequaled," and upwards of 40 installations. The Las Vegas firm started with a lone Robinson R22 in 1999. February 24, 2008 The Schweizer S-434 turbine single. 4 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews
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