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09 Apr 2008  - 

Helicopter market on an upward spiral

© F.Lert for Safran

With over 17 000 visitors, 523 exhibitors and 64 helicopters on show, Heli Expo 2008 was a great success, reflecting a helicopter industry that currently has the wind in its sails. In the space of ten years, the civil and parapublic market has more than doubled in size, with 1 400 new helicopters being ordered in 2007 and growth set to continue in the years to come. This represents a great opportunity for the companies, as the ones of the Safran Group that are active on this market.

Turbomeca: a world leader
With its 1 274 engines manufactured and 2 560 modules and engines repaired in 2007, Turbomeca was able to boast 47% market share in 2007, thereby occupying number one slot as world leader on the market. Over recent years, the company has been able to develop a solid industrial and sales base on the American continent, which today allows it to react with efficiency to the market’s rapid expansion. The site in Dallas, Texas, with its 360 employees, has been growing steadily. The new production site in Monroe (North Carolina) will have taken on 180 employees by the end of the year. Two new repair centers and ten new “Field Reps” will add strength to the technical and sales portfolio offered by Turbomeca on a market where success has followed on from success: 2 400 engines in service in North America and prestigious contracts with the US Coast Guard (engine refitting of the HH-65) and the US Army (engine refitting of the UH-72A).

On the civil market, demand is coming mainly from the oil industry, which has to deal with the increasing distance of oil fields offshore. On the eve of the Show’s opening, it was also revealed that the Canadian operator, CHC, had been taken over for 3.7 billion dollars by a US investment fund. This is an acknowledgment of the company’s value, of course, but also - indirectly - of the new-found importance of the helicopter industry as a whole. It is no coincidence, either, than the two major announcements made by Turbomeca during Heli Expo concerned the oil industry. Bond and Era, two companies specialized in serving oil rigs, both announced that they had signed up for SBH® [1] contracts. For Bond, this involved the renewal for five years of existing contracts for the Arrius 2B2 (equipping 18 EC135T2s) and the Makila 1A and 2A (powering ten Super Pumas). For Era, a new SBH® client, the contract is for the technical support of the 16 Makilas to equip its eight EC225s ordered from Eurocopter. Another notable event celebrated on the Turbomeca stand was the milestone of 100 000 flight hours for the Arriels of Maverick Helicopters. Specializing in tourist flights, this American operator is also the biggest user of EC130s to date, with 28 aircraft in service and another 17 on order.

The ambitions of Sagem Avionics
With long experience of the helicopter market, through its autopilot systems, Sagem Avionics is now solidly positioned on the cockpit display modernization market. The company is today a benchmark supplier for Integrated Cockpit Display Systems (ICDS), with multi-function screens of various sizes (6 to 10-inch). The Sagem Avionics offering revolves around screens that can be used in either portrait or landscape orientations, with an open architecture allowing them to be used in PFD (Primary Flight Display) or MFD (Multi-Function Display) modes. In the former case, this involves displaying the flight, navigation or engine data. The modes offered by MFD are more complex, and may involve the use of digital maps or video input. In the space of two years, Sagem Avionics has progressed from a single type certificate, for the Ecureuil, to certification for over ten different aircraft (Eurocopter Ecureuil, Bell 406, Bell 407, Robinson R44, Sikorsky S-61 and S-64, BK117, Bell UH-1, Bell 212, etc.). Nine of the helicopters present at Heli Expo were fitted out by Sagem Avionics. The company’s avowed objective is to cater to 80% of civil helicopter cockpit demand by the end of 2008.

About Safran
Safran is an international group led by Safran, a French registered company with a Supervisory Board and an Executive Board, headquartered in Paris, France. Safran is a high-technology group, organized in four branches: Aerospace propulsion, Aicraft equipment, Defense Security, Communications. Each of these branches, headed by an Executive Vice President, coordinates the operations of its constituent companies. In addition to its subsidiaries, the Safran group also has a number of joint ventures and affiliates. Safran has a total of 57,000 employees, and industrial, design and commercial operations in more than 30 countries.

Source : Safran