MD Helicopters Delivers

As Lynn Tilton, MD Helicopters’ CEO, has promised ever since she took over the company in 2005, MD Helicopters has consistently been improving its service and delivery performance to customers. Ms Tilton has always said that it would be the company’s priority to first focus on spares for the global MD fleet, and that airframe deliveries would increase once the global spares situation had been improved. The time has now come and MD has begun delivering significant numbers of new helicopters.

In the last week of August, MD Helicopters announced that it had delivered five new helicopters during the week—a new record for the company.

One of those helicopters was an MD Explorer for Gulf Helicopters (GHC), which is a wholly owned unit of Gulf International Services (GIS). GHC, in partnership with the National Health Authority of Qatar, selected the Explorer after a six-month evaluation programme to meet Qatar’s long-term Helicopter Emergency Medical Services requirements. Fred Layton, the general manager of Gulf Helicopters, said the reasons for selecting the Explorer were for its safety, performance and economics.

The company evaluated several light twins for the role, but Mr Layton said that “the Explorer was the clear winner based on our standard mission profile and proven performance in high temperature environment. We welcome the added capability this helicopter brings to our current operating fleet.”

The second delivery was a MD 500E to the Pomona Police Aviation Unit. This unit was formed many years ago utilising military surplus OH-6 helicopters. The MD 500E provides a significant increase in performance over the much older OH6s and offers greater times between component overhauls. The department says that the MD 500E will provide lower operating cost and better budget management.

Helisul Taxi Aereo in Brazil received a new MD 600N from Helicentro, MD’s Distributor and Authorised Service Centre in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It is the second MD 600N that the company has received since December 2007. According to Captain Eloy Biesuz, the president of Helisul Taxi Aereo, the safety of his customers is his main concern, and he says that the NOTAR™ technology makes this possible when flying and when the machines are on the ground.

In addition, he said that the NOTAR system keeps their helicopters well within IBAMA (Brazilian Institute for Environment and Renewable Resources) guidelines for low noise levels.

The last of the five deliveries were two new MD 500Es for Corporate Helicopters in San Diego, California. Corporate Helicopters provides charters, tours and aerial photographic services, and resells helicopters and helicopter parts.

“It was a busy and eventful week for us,” said Craig Kitchen, Chief Operating Officer for MD Helicopters, Inc. “And it is indicative of our turnaround and growth. To meet the demand for our aircraft, we anticipate many more weeks like this one.”