Sky Talk

More trouble for Bell, Army helicopter

Just one year after Bell Helicopter won an 11th hour reprieve to save its troubled contract to build the Army's Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter, the company is apparently running well over budget again. This just in:

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Army said Wednesday that it would consider canceling a $6.2 billion Textron Inc (TXT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) armed helicopter program after notifying Congress that its projected costs had soared more than 40 percent above initial estimates.

One possibility after a review now getting going is that the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter being built by Textron's Bell Helicopter unit could be "terminated," but the Army has a "critical" need for the capabilities at issue, said Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman.

As they say in television, stay tuned. The Star-Telegram will be talking to Army officials later today.

--Bob Cox

MD Helicopters likes North Texas airport site

MD Helicopters owner Lynn Tilton likes what she saw and heard in Grayson County, but not so much Dallas.

Tilton, in an interview with the Star-Telegram, said today that North Texas Regional Airport, located between Denison and Sherman, has made her list of finalists as a possible site for relocating the helicopter manufacturing company.

"We really like the site. We really like the people. We think it will be a good long term solution," Tilton said.

Tilton said she is still considering four sites -- including Shreveport, Oklahoma City and one in Mesa, Ariz., but had eliminated Dallas Executive Airport from consideration.

Dallas officials were accomodating and made a good proposal, Tilton said, but because the airport is surrounded by residential and commercial areas it would not be a good long term location due to the added helicopter and airplane traffic MD would generate.

Tilton said she plans to visit Oklahoma City and Shreveport next week and could make a final decision sometime in May.

- Bob Cox

MD Helicopters still has eyes on Texas

MD Helicopters may yet end up moving to Texas, but not to Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, says owner Lynn Tilton.

In an interview Friday, Tilton said she is considering five locations in four states as a possible new site for the company and expects to make a final decision within a couple of months. North Texas Regional Airport in Denison and Dallas Executive Airport (formerly Redbird Airport), in southwest Dallas are both in the running.

"We'll probably choose a final Texas site next week," Tilton said, after she visits both locations. Tilton said the decision to eliminate Alliance from consideration was made Thursday after a meeting with her relocation advisers, Cushman & Wakefield.

Tilton said costs for land and facilities would have been higher at Alliance than other locations, plus she would have been in competition with Bell Helicopter for employees. "I didn't think they (Bell) were anxious to have us there."

Tilton said she will almost certainly move the company out of its Mesa location and that airport sites in Oklahoma City, Shreveport and the Phoenix area are also under consideration.

- Bob Cox

Arizona tries to keep MD Helicopters away from Texas

Stories today in Phoenix area newspapers say local officials there are scrambling to find incentives and any other inducements they could offer MD Helicopters to keep it from moving out of the area.

MD, as the Star-Telegram reported recently, is considering a move and is looking at two possible Texas sites including Alliance Airport. MD builds a line of light single and twin-engine civil helicopters and is a competitor of Bell Helicopter of Fort Worth and American Eurocopter in Grand Prairie. MD also owns Heritage Aviation in Grand Prairie.

- Bob Cox

MD considering move to Alliance

Financier Lynn Tilton says she is considering moving MD Helicopters out of Mesa, Ariz. and Fort Worth’s Alliance Airport is one of two North Texas sites under serious consideration.

The brash, upstart Wall Street veteran who has taken on the good-old-boys of the helicopter industry head-on said Monday she has finally has MD Helicopters making helicopters and needs room and facilities to grow.

Tilton, who held a press conference at the Helicopter International Association Heli Expo trade show in Houston, told the Star-Telegram afterwards that she would be meeting with Ross Perot Jr. this week to discuss a possible move to Alliance.

Tilton said a site in Sherman was also being strongly considered.

A buyout artist who purchases financially ailing companies and tries to turn them around, Tilton acquired the nearly defunct MD Helicopters in 2005 and has spent the last three years trying to revive parts and new aircraft production.

In 2006 she acquired Heritage Aviation in Grand Prairie, which customizes new helicopters to take over work on MD products and provide technical expertise.

Tilton said she wants to consolidate MD and Heritage into one location and had been planning to move the latter firm to Mesa. But spurred by what she terms an extraordinary rent increase, Tilton announced last fall she would consider relocating.

-- Bob Cox

Engine maker looks to go green

French-owned helicopter engine manufacturer Turbomeca, which has its major U.S. engine assembly and overhaul center in Grand Prairie, is looking to a greener future and has begun research into more environmentaly friendly engine technology.

"We know there's a desire for more environmentally friendly engines," Philippe Couteaux, vice president of aircraft engines for the company, said in a press conference Saturday prior to the opening of the 2008 Helicopter Association International Heli-Expo trade show in Houston.

Neither the technology or the economics for such engines exist now, Couteaux said, but the company is trying to develop technologies that can be perfected in time for the expected market demand.

The executive said work is focusing on engines that are significantly quieter, produce substantially fewer emissions of pollutants, and produce more power from lighter, smaller and less fuel consuming components.

Green engine technology is "really a strategic imperative for us," Couteaux said.

-- Bob Cox

India to hold new helicopter bidding

As recent news reports have strongly suggested, India has canceled a plan to buy $600 million worth of armed scout helicopters from Eurocopter for the country's Army and says it will re-open a competition after allegations of improprieties surfaced.

Flight International  reports India, which spent seven years on the now scrapped acquisition process, will issue requests soon for manufacturers to issue new proposals. Bell Helicopter and the U.S. government had both issued complaints about the prior selection process.

Flight reports:While Eurocopter may feel aggrieved, the Indian army is the biggest loser. The service urgently needs the helicopters to replace its Cheetak and Cheetah fleets, many of which were inducted over 30 years ago. "It could take another six years for a new helicopter is delivered and that's just too long. The army is paying the price for official incompetence," says a New Delhi-based defence observer.

Three main issues have plagued Eurocopter, which offered the AS550 Fennec, since India began price negotiations in February after disqualifying the Bell 407 on technical grounds. The first was that it used the AS350 B3 Ecureil, the civilian variant of the AS550, for the trials. The second was that, in a possible conflict of interest, a member of its agency in India is a close relative of a senior member of the selection committee. Thirdly, Bell charges that it was disqualified on flimsy grounds despite its attempts to co-operate with the selection committee.

- Bob

MD helicopters pondering Grand Prairie move?

The Arizona Republic newspaper reported today that MD Helicopters may consider relocating to Grand Prairie. Company owner Lynn Tilton, who has spent hundreds of millions the last couple of years to revive the nearly defunct company, is unhappy with a proposed rent increase by the Mesa, Ariz. airport. Tilton, through her Patriarch Partners investment fund, also owns Heritage Aviation located at the Grand Prairie Municipal Airport.

A move to Grand Prairie would put MD in competition with Bell Helicopter, Eurocopter and other area aerospace companies for skilled workers.

- Bob

Border patrol buys helicopters

   American Eurocopter in Grand Prairie said it has received an order from U.S. Customs and Border Protection for eight additional AS350 B3 single-engine helicopters for border patrol and other homeland security missions.

-Bob