Rotorcraft

One sol equals one solar day on Mars—and that’s about 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds in Earth time. April 4 was officially “Sol 43” since NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on the fourth planet from the sun—and on that day, the drone rotorcraft Ingenuity separated from its mother ship, making the small leap to […]

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) joined five other aviation associations recently in opposition to two New York City bills that would severely restrict helicopter operations in the city and create additional paperwork requirements. The March 9 letter to Peter Vallone, chairman of the New York City Committee on Economic Development, was co-signed by representatives of the […]

Inadvertent VFR flight into IMC weather and the resulting fatal accidents are not simply a problem for aircraft pilots, but also for those flying helicopters. In a news release, the US Helicopter Safety Team (USHST) said, “Between 2000 to 2019 in the US, there were 130 fatal accidents directly linked to the issue of spatial […]

While the data just released from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) showed trends that weren’t unexpected, the degree of downturn for the industry points to a more significant slump than most people prepared for. The total number of aircraft shipped to date in 2020 declined 21.5 percent from the same period last year. Billings […]

Orlando-Sanford International Airport-based Vertical Aviation Technologies, Inc. recently purchased type certificate 1H2 from Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, which represents the FAA design approval for the S-52 series helicopters Sikorsky originally developed and certified. Vertical plans to release its own version to the commercial marketplace as the new four-place S-52L Hummingbird. Brad Clark, president of Vertical Aviation, […]

The National Transportation Safety Board has asked helicopter manufacturers Bell, Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo Helicopter Division, MD Helicopters, Robinson Helicopter Company and Sikorsky to require visual and audio data recorders on commercial turbine-powered helicopters. Speaking directly to airframe manufacturers is a first for the NTSB regarding video image recorders and comes following the FAA’s refusal to […]

When an engineer proposes a truly new solution to an entrenched problem, a chorus of naysayers inevitably arises from the midst of any nods of appreciation. The FAA, in fact, has produced processes for accepting such departures from common thinking—often found under the “alternate means of compliance” route in aircraft certification—but those manufacturers that have […]

The National Transportation Safety Board on Friday published a number of details the board has gathered from ADS-B tracking data, ground-based video camera footage and witnesses since the January 26 crash of a Sikorsky S76, N72EX, in the hilly terrain near Calabasas, California. The flight, operated under Part 135 by Island Express Helicopters Inc., was […]

Following the Helicopter Association International’s Heli-Expo on January 27 to 30, 2020, in Anaheim, California, Honeywell has released its latest Helicopter Purchase Outlook, in which operators are interviewed for their projected buying plans over the next 1 to 5 years. The survey, which collects information from more than 1,000 operators worldwide, is in its 22nd […]

Despite steady sales in the last part of 2019 and into 2020, total deliveries at Robinson Helicopter Company fell to 196 units for the year. This is a decline from 2018 and 2017 sales, which showed strong growth in 2017 and remained there for 2018. The breakdown of models included 19 R22s, 123 R44s, and […]