Partnerships
As with any high-profile aircraft deal, several partners can be collaborating and working towards the common goal of building the aircraft, getting them into service, and supporting the customer. In this NASA case, the transition from legacy airframes operated by NASA for 30 years to new modern helicopters was no exception.
At the center of the partnership was Davenport Aviation. NASA acquired the aircraft through Davenport, an SBA-certified woman- owned
small specializing business in the supply
of aerospace equipment to federal, state, and local government agencies. Giving consideration to the right aircraft for the job, Davenport indicated that the H135
was selected because it has the technological and performance capabilities
necessary to perform NASA’s demanding multi- role mission set. Its reliable twin-engine design and fuel efficiency allow longer time on station and critical margin for overwater operations.
“Our team at Davenport Aviation feels
extraordinarily proud to have supplied NASA’s state-of-the-art rotorcraft through our GSA contract vehicle,” said Joao Simoes, president and CEO of Davenport. “It’s inspiring to have contributed to the advancement of the United States space exploration programs.”
The H135s had a couple of stops in order to finish them and bring them up to operational readiness. First, the aircraft were assembled and delivered to the customer from the OEM’s production and completion facility in Columbus, Mississippi, the same location where the U.S. Army’s UH-72 Lakotas are built. Since it opened in 2003, more than 1,300 aircraft have departed the Mississippi facility, where 40% of its more than 200 employees are U.S. military veterans.
During the process, Airbus called on its trusted completion partners at Metro Aviation out of Shreveport, Louisiana. Metro Aviation routinely works with Airbus to develop complex interior completions. Metro was asked to develop a multi-mission package to meet NASA’s requirements, which included a light aeromedical interior as well as the FLIR camera and downlink system.
“Our completion center is accustomed to working on unique and outside-the-box configurations, but to have the opportunity to collaborate with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is something most people could only dream of,” said Metro Aircraft Configuration Coordinator Amy McMullen. “We worked closely with Airbus, Davenport, and NASA’s chief of flight operations to customize these three H135 aircraft to their unique mission, and I can’t think of a more experienced completion center to work with the nation’s space program.”
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