Helicopter Companies

Bonanza Books, New York, 1984, the illustrated encyclopedia of helicopters.

Guideline for the 4 largest helicopter producers

Airbus Helicopters was known as Eurocopter until 2014, but it has a long and varied heritage dating back to Blériot in France and Messerschmitt in Germany. Eurocopter was not created until 1992, when the helicopter business of Aérospatiale and Daimler-Benz Aerospace AG (DASA) became one.

Headquartered in Europe, Airbus has four major Airbus aircraft factories and a further 30 subsidiaries around the world. Although some choppers are being manufactured in Donauwörth, Germany, the principal platform is located at Marignane airport in Marseille, in the southern part of France. At Heli Expo 2015 in Orlando, following the renaming of Airbus in 2014, the airline said it would rename its existing productive aircraft, thereby eliminating the EC pre-fix, which represents a setback to the Eurocopter Festival.

The civilian and civilian helidecks currently in operation vary from lightweight to heavier helidecks. The Dauphin (originally the AS365, today the H155) is one of the most beloved choppers in the program. It is a medium-sized helicopter that has been bought over 1000 times. AgustaWestland was founded in July 2000, when Agusta and the Westland parents combined their helicopter businesses, and is now a fully consolidated Finmeccanica company with its head office in Rome, Italy.

The two companies started helicopter manufacturing in the 1950', with Westland in Yeovil in the south of Great Britain concentrating mainly on the defence sector. Even though the firm was best known for manufacturing the Sea King choppers that are still in use today with the British coastguard and SAR forces, it was actually a licenced variant of the Sikorsky S-61.

AgustaWestland is considered the second largest producer of army helidecks. Among the airplanes in the army occupation belong the AW101 Merlin and the AW159 Wildcat. The AgustaWestland AW609 tilt rotor is one of the most thrilling coming helidecks. Even though the Tilttrotor has been in use in the army for several years, we have not yet used it for civilian purposes.

Changing the location of the rotors during different phases of flying, a tiltrotor can be converted from a conventional helicopter airfoil, which gives the helicopter uplift, to a forward looking turbo-prop airplane. In addition to the honor of being the first U.S. combat airframe manufacturer, the corporation was honored to be the first to produce a helicopter that was evaluated by a CAC.

Bell 47 was the second helicopter Bell ever produced, and after its launch in the mid-1940s more than 5,600 planes were delivered. In 1959 the largest helicopter of the enterprise was put into operation. UH-1 Huey was produced with a print run of about 16,000 pieces, and the plane really earned its name during the Vietnam Civil war.

One year later, in 1960, Textron bought the business. Bell was then divided into three parts, although only the helicopter business produced entire aircrafts. It continues to produce both commercial and defence helidecks, although the latest new models were built almost entirely for commercial purposes. Established in 1925 by Igor Sikorsky, a Ukranian aeronautical technician, the enterprise began its activities with the design and construction of conventional multi-engine and seaplane aeroplanes from its New York headquarters.

Three years later, the business entered United Technologies Corporation and relocated to what is now Stamford, Connecticut. In 1928, after a fusion with Voughtcraft, Igor Sikorsky turned to the helicopter. Sikorsky' first helicopter, the VS-300, was used as a test rig for the first Sikorsky series helicopter.

Today, Sikosky's core activity is the construction of mid to heavy-duty choppers known for their robust power. The S-76 is a commercially available helicopter used by many coastguards and aerial forces around the globe, and the S-96 is mainly used by petroleum and natural resources companies that transport labour between sites.

In early 2015, UTC announced that it had conducted a strategy assessment of the companies in its portfolios and found that Sikorsky was not in line with its expectation.