December 2011 Serving the Worldwide Helicopter Industry rotorandwing.com Operator’s Choice: Engines & Equipment Military Insider T2 MAKES WAVES YEAR IN REVIEW Anytime. Anywhere. Information You Can Count On We’re There! Rotor & Wing is the most respected and most widely-read magazine in the market, and has been for well over 40 years and counting. Whatever you fly, wherever you go, you can count on Rotor & Wing. To subscribe or renew your subscription go to www.omeda.com/rw 2 www.aviationtoday.com/rw 17796 ROTOR & WING MAGAZINE | JUNE 2011 © 2011 Cobham plc. All rights reserved. EDITORIAL All-band P25 capability Andrew Parker Senior Editor, [email protected] Chris Sheppard Associate Editor, [email protected] Ernie Stephens Editor-at-Large, [email protected] Andrew Drwiega Military Editor, [email protected] Claudio Agostini Latin America Bureau Chief Joe West United Kingdom Correspondent Contributing Writers: Chris Baur; Lee Benson; Shannon Bower; Igor Bozinovski; Tony Capozzi; Keith Cianfrani; Steve Colby; Frank Colucci; Dan Deutermann; Pat Gray; Frank Lombardi; Vicki McConnell; Robert Moorman; Douglas Nelms; Mark Robins; Dale Smith; Terry Terrell; Todd Vorenkamp; Richard Whittle. ADVERTISING/BUSINESS Joe Rosone VP & Group Publisher, [email protected] Randy Jones Publisher, 1-972-713-9612, [email protected] Eastern United States & Canada Carol Mata , 1-512-607-6361, [email protected] International Sales, Europe/Pac Rim/Asia James McAuley +34 952 118 018, [email protected] DESIGN/PRODUCTION Joy Park Graphic Designer Tony Campana Production Manager, 1-301-354-1689 [email protected] Tesha Blett Web Production Manager AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Jill Braun Audience Development Director, [email protected] George Severine Fulfillment Manager, [email protected] Customer Service/Back Issues 1-847-559-7314 [email protected] LIST SALES Statlistics Jen Felling ,1-203-778-8700, [email protected] REPRINTS Wright’s Media, 1-877-652-5295 [email protected] We didn’t invent tactical ACCESS INTELLIGENCE, LLC Donald A. Pazour Chief Executive Officer radios. We just keep Ed Pinedo Executive Vice President/Chief Financial Officer Macy L. Fecto Executive Vice President, Human Resources & perfecting them. Administration Heather Farley Divisional President, Business Information Group Sylvia Sierra Senior Vice President of Corporate Audience Development The most important thing we build is trust. Robert Paciorek Senior Vice President/Chief Information Officer Michael Kraus Vice President of Production & Manufacturing Steve Barber Vice President, Financial Planning and Internal Audit The new Ask about upgrading Gerald Stasko Vice President/Corporate Controller RT-5000P is the Alison Johns Vice President, E-Media, Business Information only all-band your existing RT-5000. Group P-25 transceiver It’s easy. in one radio. Introducing the Cobham RT-5000P. For photocopyphotocopy or reuse requests: 1-800-772-3350 or [email protected] Covers all current and future P-25 public service frequency bands with one radio. Cobham Aerospace Communications Front Panel Programmable (FPP) of all AM/FM/ 6400 Wilkinson Drive P-25 channel information. No computer required! Prescott, AZ 86301 USA Access Intelligence, LLC The new and powerful SCAN function monitors 4 Choke Cherry Rd., 2nd Floor 1-928-708-1550 Rockville, Md. 20850 - USA any frequency, any mode. Phone: 1-301-354-2000, Fax: 1-301-354-1809 [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Communication Without Limits. www.cobham.com DECEMBER 2011 | ROTOR & WING MAGAZINE 3 Editor’s Notebook Year in Review: 2011 By Andrew Parker [email protected] verall, 2011 could be tor,” at an Oct. 25 customer event in One of the things that makes the described as a year that Grand Prairie, Texas (see page 13). helicopter industry so dynamic is all Oincluded some dramatic ups One memory that sticks out in my the characters and personalities. and downs for helicopters mind about 2011 is slowly weaving Many of the industry figures that involved in combat. In the commercial my way to the front of a packed crowd Rotor & Wing had the opportunity to market, while nobody can predict the and taking a video of the EC145T2 speak with during 2011—including direction of the economy, the con- unveiling, and then doing basically the Turbomeca CEO Olivier Andries (see tinued development of new variants same thing across the Heli-Expo show page 26), Bell’s Garrison; Air Methods and sales inching forward is fueling floor about 30 minutes later with the CEO Aaron Todd (see October issue, Versatility for your missions a guarded optimism that 2012 could introduction of the Bell 407GX and page 44); Russian Helicopters CEO bring a return to more plentiful times. 407AH (see aviationtoday.com/rw/ Dmitry Petrov (see April issue, page Value for your budget It’s been an eventful year, with the heliexpo2011/videos). 15); Sikorsky President Jeff Pino (see U.S. Special Ops helicopter raid on Other new and in-development August issue, page 12); Kaman Heli- Osama bin Laden (see coverage in variants made strides in 2011. Among copters President Sal Bordonaro (see June issue starting on page 10), fol- the highlights include the introduc- May issue, page 42); UTair President lowed a couple months later by the tion of the AgustaWestland AW189 & CEO Andrey Martirosov (see April crash of a 10th Army Combat Aviation during the Paris Air Show (see August issue, page 24); Kurt Robinson and Brigade Boeing Chinook that resulted issue, page 16); Sikorsky’s S-97 Raider others—share a generally optimis- in the deaths of 38 troops (see Septem- advancing toward first flight in 2014 tic outlook toward the future of the Designed to achieve the multi-mission demands of ber issue, page 12). (see story, page 23); MD Helicopters industry. Rotor & Wing publication Military winning a U.S. Army training contract While financial analysts run the homeland security Insider made its debut in June 2011, (see April issue, page 23); the unveiling spectrum in terms of where the world- with a second installment appearing in of Marenco Swisshelicopter’s SKYe wide economy is headed, most of the Maximum survivability, built-in safety and superior performance this issue. Military Insider is scheduled SH09 (see April issue, page 12); Rus- insiders we spoke with during 2011 to appear three times during 2012 and sian Helicopters finalizing the con- feel that the rotorcraft market has become a regular feature in the years solidation of its manufacturing and leveled out and is headed toward a Excellent value for money in terms of operating and ahead. service entities (see February issue, steadily rising trend, or at the worst a maintenance costs Another interesting development page 15); Eurocopter announcing its continuation of the “flat is the new up” in the past 12 months is AgustaWest- X4 Dauphin replacement (see August economics. land’s purchase of Bell’s share in the issue, page 14) and flight testing its X3 These represent some of the major BA609 tiltrotor program, now the hybrid demonstrator (see May issue, highlights of 2011, but there are hun- AW609 (see August issue, page 16). page 26); and Robinson’s R66 receiving dreds of additional stories from the Bell CEO John Garrison says the Fort a positive response (see February issue, past 12 months that are worth a sec- Worth, Texas-based manufacturer page 24), with CEO Kurt Robinson ond look (see Year in Review, page 32). decided to focus solely on the V-22 projecting an upswing in helicopter If even for just a minute, it’s impor- program, its joint venture with Boeing sales at the beginning of the year (see tant to reflect back on 2011 as we look (see November issue, page 26). April issue, page 23). ahead to 2012. Add it all up, and it’s The helicopter featured on There were also a number of devel- been a year to remember in the history this month’s cover—Eurocopter’s opments in emerging markets, with of helicopters. EC145T2—made a couple of key the first China Helicopter Exposition appearances during 2011, with the taking place in September (see cover- What is your organization’s outlook smoke-filled, Hollywood-style intro- age in October issue, page 10) and going into 2012? Are you optimistic duction of the variant during Heli- several OEMs seeking to benefit from going into this year’s Heli-Expo in Dal- Expo in March, to the flight demon- the projected growth in helicopter las? Please send your comments to stration of Tango 2, aka the “termina- demand in Asia. [email protected] 4 ROTOR & WING MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2011 WWW.ROTORANDWING.COM By Andrew Parker [email protected] Versatility for your missions Value for your budget Designed to achieve the multi-mission demands of homeland security Maximum survivability, built-in safety and superior performance Excellent value for money in terms of operating and maintenance costs WWW.ROTORANDWING.COM MARCH 2011 | ROTOR & WING MAGAZINE 5 THIS MONTH FROM Personal|Corporate Commercial Military Public Service DEPARTMENTS 12 12 Rotorcraft Report 18 People 18 Coming Events 23 Program Insider Sikorsky S-97 Raider 24 Hot Products 37 Classified Ads 43 Ad Index (Above) JSC Euro-Asia has ordered two AgustaWestland AW139s. COLUMNS (Bottom) Turbomeca has delivered more than 10,000 Arriel family engines to operators. (Right) Northrop Grumman Fire Scout MQ-8B could form basis for a UK Royal Navy UAS design using the Gazelle. 4 Editor’s Notebook 8 Feedback FEATURES OPERATOR S CHOICE 10 Meet the Contributors 40 Leading Edge 26 ■ Operators: Engines & Equipment 42 Around the World Turbomeca reaches 10,000 Arriel deliveries. Police mission 44 Public Service equipment. RAF search and rescue profile. By Rotor & Wing editors 46 Military Insider 32 ■ Year in Review A look back at Rotor & Wing’s news and feature coverage during 2011. Compiled by Chris Sheppard, Associate Editor M4 ■ OH-58 ‘A2D’ Advances Bell Helicopter and the U.S.