Helicopter Industry Early Beginnings To
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“We vlogen met een zucht...” HELICOPTER INDUSTRY% EARLY BEGINNINGS TO NOW An outlook on the helicopter market and its major players in the rotorcraft industry The helicopter is probably the most !exible aircraft that we know today. Although its history dates back to around 1500, the "rst practical helicopter wasn’t manufactured until the 1940s, roughly three decades after the Wright brothers’ "rst powered human !ight. Today, helicopters ful"l a wide range of tasks both in the civil and in the military sectors. Rescue missions requiring high precision, surveillance or quick transport are all possible due to this wonder of vertical !ight. TEXT Lubi Spranger, BSc Student he !rst helicopter-like machine was to counterwork this undesired motion or wards, backward, up, down and sideways. Tenvisioned by the revolutionary inven- by using two oppositely spinning blades Sikorsky’s design laid the foundation for tor Leonardo da Vinci in the mid 1500s in on the main rotor shaft. Another di$culty modern single-rotor helicopter designs. the form of the sketch of an aerial screw. that was faced by early helicopter engi- Other pioneers in the !eld included the Based on the principle of compressing air neers was the dissymmetry of lift. As the American Stanley Hiller, Jr. who invented through its rotational motion to generate rotor blades turned in a !xed direction, the !rst helicopter to have all metal ro- lift, it was supposed to undergo vertical the rotor blades would alternately spin tor blades that were very sti# and made "ight according to the same principle as in the direction of the air"ow and against it possible to "y at much higher speeds. today’s modern helicopters. the air"ow, leading to an unequal genera- Another American inventor in the !eld, Before practical helicopters as we know tion of lift due to the di#erence in speeds. Arthur Young of the Bell Company, made them were actually able to lift o# and sus- Again, a solution was quickly found in the signi!cant contributions to the design of tain "ight for a remarkable period of time, form of the swashplate, which allowed the world’s !rst commercial helicopter, more than three centuries had to pass by for equal lift on each side of the central the Bell Model 47. until the !nal breakthrough at the end of rotor shaft by alternating the rotor blade Today, helicopters !nd a wide range of ap- the 19th century with the invention of the angles. Cycling controls were introduced plication with great variety in individual internal combustion engine, providing to control the helicopter’s roll and pitch, design, both for civil and military uses: the required power for full-scale models. making sure the pilot didn’t unexpectedly be it in the public sector for police opera- Intensive experimenting throughout the face the horizon upside-down. tions, rescue missions with air ambulance 20th century lead to the major problems Through the work of di#erent pioneers or for industrial purposes such as shuttle presented to vertical "ight being re- from Europe and the USA the !rst prac- services between an oil platform and the solved. One of the main issues lay in the tical helicopter came to life in 1936, the mainland. The world moves more and torque created by the rotor blades on the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, designed by the Ger- faster than ever before and desires more fuselage, leading to an unwanted spin of man professor Henrich Focke. The Ukrai- "exibility. The demand for rotorcraft in- the main body opposite to the direction nian-American inventor Igor Sikorsky had creases as better utility helicopters allow of the rotor. This problem was resolved by designed the successful VS-300 model by for the access of more remote drilling either including a vertical tail rotor able 1940 which managed controlled "ight for- locations in the oil industry. The market 42 Leonardo Times MARCH 2013 We vlogen met..0313.indd 42 3/1/13 10:41 research company Lucintel predicts a steady growth in the helicopter market due to increased military demand from WWW.IMAP.COM WALLPOPER.COM emerging economies and the recovering global economy. It places an estimate of the rotorcraft industry value at $24.7bn by 2017. Dividing the global helicopter man- ufacturing industry into the four di! erent sectors [North America, Europe, Asia Pacif- ic (APAC) and Rest of World (ROW)], APAC is predicted to be the dominating sector by 2017 which is explained with the ex- pected rising military expenditures in the report by Lucintel. Their forecast of the 2012-2017 Global Helicopter Industry also predicts the following challenges that the helicopter industry will have to face in the coming years: high import tax for aircraft, budget cuts in the defence industry, great Figure 1. The global helicopter market in 2009, broken up by manufacturer availability of second hand helicopters ment of the old models latest technolo- forecasts an expenditure of the helicopter and on top of that unfavourable terms of gies can be incorporated into various new market until 2015. The company predicts " nancing. Hence, it becomes clear that designs. that over one " fth of the helicopters pro- there are a number of di# culties manu- Figure 1 indicates the major players in duced worldwide will be sold to custom- facturers will have to deal with. Nonethe- the global helicopter market in 2009. In ers outside the US and Europe, namely to less, the report also indicates important the civil sector the largest manufacturers the Middle East, Africa and Asia Paci" c. industry growth drivers such as global are Eurocopter, AugustaWestland (AGW), The helicopter industry remains a fasci- economic growth, new technological Bell and Sikorsky and in the military sector nating sector of the aviation industry with developments, rising demand for multi- Sikorsky, Eurocopter, Russian Helicopters, many new technologies to be looked for- purpose helicopters and freshly emerging Boeing, Bell and AGW. The civil helicopter markets. These new market sectors will ward to in the coming years. Future heli- market is dominated by European com- lead to an increased demand of helicop- copter models are designed to be faster, panies, whilst American companies are ter use both for industrial and civil pur- more fuel-e# cient and safer whilst noise prominent in the military helicopter mar- poses. In particular, the military market and particle emission levels are reduced ket. Eurocopter is the leading helicopter is expected to expand faster than other and capacity is increased. The helicopter manufacturer worldwide by revenue and market segments. has become one of human’s most $ ex- units of turbine helicopter deliveries in Rolls-Royce also predicts a ‘strong long ible tools and a life without $ exibility has the civil sector. A subsidiary owned 100% term demand for vertical lift’ in their Heli- become almost unimaginable for most of by EADS, Eurocopter was formed in 1992 copter Market Forecast 2011-2020 driven us. by technology advancements (such as from the French company Aérospatiale digital cockpits, autonomous cargo deliv- and Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace AG from References ery and re-supply for military types) and Germany with its current headquarters located in Marignane, France. Augus- http://www.$ ightglobal.com/Features/ changing global market requirements. helicopters-special/census/ taWestland is an Anglo-Italian helicopter Their turbine rotorcraft deliveries are http://inventors.about.com/od/ estimated at a value of $140bn with the company which was formed as a 50:50 hstartinventions/a/helicopter.htm turbine engine market amounting to a joint venture company from the British http://www.helis.com/introduction/ prin.php predicted value of > $12bn. The number company GKN and the Italian industrial group Finmeccanica. Bell Helicopter was http://www.prweb.com/releas- of rotorcraft to be produced as predicted es/2013/1/prweb10296613.htm formed as early as 1935 and specialised in by Rolls-Royce is placed at 16970+. An http://www.rolls-royce.com/Im- analysis of the trends in the civil market the manufacture of " ghter craft in its early ages/2011_Helicopter_Market_Fore- indicate that although singles and light days and holds its headquarters in Forth cast_tcm92-27154.pdf twin helicopters lead the market by units, Worth, Texas. Based in Stratford, Connecti- http://www.$ ightglobal.com/Features/ helicopters-special/census/ intermediates and light twins lead the cut, the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation was http://www.eurocopter.com/site/en/ref/ market by value. Market drivers as identi- founded in 1925 and is a leading defence Eurocopter-Today_325.html " ed by Rolls-Royce are emerging markets contractor. With a history that dates a long http://www.imap.com/imap/media/re- such as in India, Brazil and China as well as way back to the early work of pioneer Igor sources/Aerospace_8_1FED752787A1E. pdf the existing $ eet demographics. Current- Sikorsky, the company remains one of the main manufacturers in the USA, includ- http://bellhelicopter.com/Company/ ly, about 43% percent of the global $ eet is AboutBell/History/History.html ing the manufacture of the presidential aged 25 years or above, according to the http://www.agustawestland.com/ helicopter, currently the models VH-3 and statistics presented by Rolls-Royce. This http://www.sikorsky.com/Index VH-60. presents new opportunities to helicopter http://en.wikipedia.org manufacturers, since with the replace- Research carried out by Frost & Sullivan MARCH 2013 Leonardo Times 43 We vlogen met..0313.indd 43 3/1/13 10:41 .