Parapex Media

Today we are at Farnborough International Airshow - a fantastic event just 13 miles from our office as the helicopter flies. (We don’t have any crowd round here…)

With Bristow Group holding various levels of interest in more AAM programs than any other traditional helicopter operator, it raises an eyebrow that a document on “early AAM operations” still has the word Philosophical in the title. They must see first AAM operations more years ahead than the OEMs in this market segment would want them to. The “eBristow” logo is new too - no previous announcement on this as far as we’ve seen, tracking their fleet and news as we do

The Helicopter & VTOL Investor conference is a required event to attend for Parapex Media. As we track every turbine helicopter on the planet, just being with the world’s leading operators and lessors gives us an advantage in the helicopter data and advisory world.

Leonardo Helicopters have gone to #EBACE2024 in Geneva this week with a Corporate/VIP interior in an #AW09 mockup. Given it has been largely targeted at the H125 market - particularly EMS and Law Enforcement in the US - what do you think of its future potential as a VIP/Corporate aircraft? #Helicopter #MarketIntelligence

The UK has a proud history with the Sikorsky S61 ranging from scheduled services to offshore rig support and military sub-contracts. Today we can report that, after an appropriate 61 years, the last one left the UK register yesterday. From the first BEA Helicopters aircraft registered in 1963 (G-ASNL seen in this postcard image at the old Penzance Heliport), the history is complete with G-FLKI sold to Canada - one of the three acquired by Bristow Group when they purchased British International Helicopters and since replaced by S92s on the Falklands contract. For completeness, there is an FAA-registered S61 in the UK that is intended (one day...) for load lifting operations. There are also no less than seven Westland Sea Kings on the civil register and operated by Historic Helicopters. Some of these will make airshow appearances in the future. #Helicopter #MarketIntelligence 

The most recent stats for our Airports and Heliports database.

The next #ACH160 has been delivered by Airbus Helicopters this morning. Although registered in the Netherlands, it has flown west and then south from Marignane and landed near Girona in Spain. The same owner currently flies an H130 and an H135. There are now H160s on the Brazilian, Canadian, Cayman, Dutch, French, Italian, Japanese, Luxembourg, Manx, Philippine, Saudi and US registers. We expect the next delivery to be to an operator in Switzerland on behalf of a private owner whose helicopters are usually on the San Marino register. #Helicopter #MarketIntelligence Photo credit Romain Boghossian

Mini-Profile - Bell Flight 429 From first flight in February 2007 and FAA certification in July 2009, Bell have built 520 helicopters on the 429 production line. Almost all these are the skid format, with 24 having the wheeled landing gear option instead. 18 have been withdrawn from use after accidents. Bell currently have nine 429s at their completion centre in Piney Flats, Tennessee, and a further one at their equivalent European centre in Prague, Czech Republic. Of the US ones, two have registrations ending "SP" which may indicate a State Police purchaser, and another ends in "QT" and likely the second for QuikTrip as seen in the Bell rendering shown here. In terms of countries, there are 429s on the registers of 55 countries, and (somewhat unusually) they are based in 55 countries, but not necessarily the same ones.... Four are based on superyachts. Of the 476 Bell 429s operating around the world, 72 are in the primary roles of SAR or Air Ambulance, and 82 are in Law Enforcement

In May 2022, Bell Flight announced that South Korea had selected the Bell 505 as the new training helicopter for both the Republic of Korea Army and Republic of Korea Navy. They ordered "up to 40" to be delivered "by 2025". Our analysis shows that 15 have been delivered to date, starting with three in October 2023 - including the one shown in the image here. The deliberate wording of the Bell press release makes us wonder how many of the "up to 40" will actually be delivered. Let's hope that Korea commits to the whole fleet, as it sounds like some may be options, not orders. #Helicopter #MarketIntelligence

eVTOL developer Volocopter is telling their local press in Germany that they will have to “consider insolvency in the foreseeable future” if their current financial problems are not resolved. Loan guarantees of €100 million being sought from state and federal governments have not been fruitful (they had originally sought €300M). Volocopter’s shareholders could potentially dip their hands in their pockets, and these include Saudi Arabian organisation NEOM, asset manager BlackRock, Mercedes-Benz AG, DB Schenker, Intel Corporation, Microsoft and Chinese car manufacturer GEELY. The chance of flights at the Paris Olympics in July are as good as dead. The only remaining option is for the French Direction Generale de l'Aviation Civile to issue a Permit to Fly on pre-defined and highly controlled routes, with “pre-selected non-paying passengers”. #Helicopter #MarketIntelligence