Heli-Expo 2019 Review

HAI Heli-Expo is the world's largest helicopter trade show and exposition, and the 2019 edition was hosted at the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) in Atlanta, Georgia from 4th - 7th March 2019.

Heli-Expo gives the Helicopter industry the platform to showcase it's latest products, developments and to announce new helicopter orders.

Here are some highlights of the show:

• Airbus Helicopters announced orders for 43 new helicopters that span their whole product range. Airbus Helicopters also unveiled their 5 blade H145 aircraft.
• Bell announced new orders for 8 aircraft during the show and displayed their much talked about Nexus eVTOL mock-up.
• Kopter announced that they are to build their SH09 in Lafayette, LA, in the same facility that was to house the Bell 505 production.
• Leonardo announced 7 new orders during the event including 4 AW119Ke that are to enter the Ecuadorean military market.
• MD Helicopters displayed their MD969 (militarised MD902) at the show, and committed to re-open the MD902 production line this year. Lynn Tilton also announced the next development for MD Helicopters, the Swift. The Swift will be put forward for the US Army's Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) contest.
• Sikorsky announced two new versions of it's S-92. The S-92B is a new build aircraft with larger cabin windows, common cabin door and a new gearbox. Current S-92's could be modified with the changes to become an S-92A+.

The exhibition hall consisted of 57 aircraft that either arrived by road or under their own power and below is a small over view of the direction that the helicopter market seems to be going in.

The theme of the helicopter on display at this years event, again, seemed to follow recent rotary wing trends - Air Medical and Firefighting.

There were numerous helicopters on display that fit into one of the above categories, with re-purposed former military helicopters taking up a lot of the trade floor showcasing their ability to be converted to firefighting aircraft.

Coulson-Unical displayed both their CH-47D & UH-60 that are in the process of being converted into firefighting aircraft. Coulson-Unical plan to update the cockpit & use their Retardant Aerial Delivery System (RADS) that's been adapted for the CH-47 (RADS-L) and UH-60 (RADS-M), to create the 'CU-47' and 'CU-60'.

N160EB CH-47D Unical Aviation Inc.

N60CU UH-60A Unical Aviation Inc.

Other exhibitors of re-purposed UH-60's included:

BHI² with their firefighting UH-60 that has a removable, all electric, integral 925Gal tank.

N60XP  BHI H60 (UH-60A) Brown Helicopter Inc.

SNC Sierra Force H-60 complete with wing pylons designed for hell-fire missiles and a Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera.

N244AA UH-60A Sierra Nevada Corporation 

Ace Aero and Rogerson Kratos also displayed former US Army UH-60's:

N60FW UH-60A ACE Aeronautics LLC

N683DN UH-60A Rogerson-Kratos 

US Aviation Training Solutions (USATS) from Titusville, FL, displayed a UH-60 along side a smaller Bell 206 and Robinson R44. USATS is the former Bristow Academy.

N980AA EH-60A Aircraft Investment Holdings LLC /Arista Aviation (USATS)

N127AP Bell 206B GM Leasing Company LLC/USATS 

Air medical is a market segment that is showing continued growth worldwide in both the single and twin engine categories. Airbus Helicopters and Leonardo provided examples both exhibited air medical configurations and a number of other independent stands inside the GWCC also displayed air medical helicopters.

N125LN AS.350B2 Air Methods (operated for Air Life Georgia)

I-EASQ AW109 Trekker Shanghai Kingwing - HEMS interior

There has been renewed focus in the industry in recent times on VIP configured aircraft, with a number being present and also a number of mock ups present in the show.

N118UJ AW169 Leonardo

Adler Group displayed a mock-up interior for a VVIP AW169 

Also on display at Heli-Expo were two rotary crafts of the not to distant future. First up was the 2 seat hybrid SureFly, built by Workhorse. The SureFly uses a gasoline engine and in integrated battery pack to turn 2 propellers.

N834LW SureFly

Bell used most of their stand to showcase the Nexus. The hybrid Nexus is what Bell see as being the solution to the Urban Air Mobility question. The mock-up certainly looks the part, and Bell are working on the flying prototype that they hope to have in the air in 2023.

Bell Nexus

In what's been a very turbulent decade for the helicopter industry, there are signs of some green shoots beginning to grow.....but only very slowly!

*All photos taken by Daniel Williams