personal passion and professional background in safety when addressing the media and the association’s membership. Te former director of general aviation safety assurance for the FAA, US Army helicopter pilot, and the organizer of the US Helicopter Safety Team, Viola emphasized the importance of keeping safety as an essential activity for the industry. “High-profile accidents and incidents bring more visibility, and not in a positive way for the industry,” Viola said at his introductory press conference on Jan. 27. “If there’s any connection to what we’re doing this week, it’s that this industry really goes out of its way to try to make sure we provide the safest environment possible. Zero accidents—that’s the vision, the goal, because no loss of life is acceptable.” In addition to multiple safety courses, HAI for the first
time created a safety kiosk near the show floor main entrance. Safety-focused affiliate organizations that typically have booths on the show floor were co-located in the kiosk, offering a front-and-center safety access point for all attendees. Participants included NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System, the International Helicopter Safety Foundation, the Tour Operators Program of Safety, the FAA Safety Team, and the Unmanned Aircraft Safety Team. At the HAI Annual Membership Meeting on Jan. 28, FAA
Administrator Stephen M. Dickson spoke about the industry’s safety challenges and how the agency is working to solve them. (To read ROTOR’s exclusive interview with Dickson during Expo, see p. 46.) With unmanned aircraft systems and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft quickly moving from prototype to testing, Dickson empha- sized that those passengers will demand the very high level of safety achieved by airlines—a benchmark the helicopter industry has yet to meet. Dickson also questioned the current climate in the heli-
copter industry in which, more often than not, accidents could have been avoided. If the industry can’t change that climate, it will be forced to, he said. “Tere’s a lot of energy in Congress as it relates to safety and noise concerns. If we can’t take meaningful action on both of these fronts very soon, I suspect that path forward might be dictated to us,” Dickson said.
The New Normal Beyond safety, the industry’s key manufacturers have focused on expanding their businesses. All told, the collective industry story is one of slow, steady growth with clear geopolitical challenges. For years, aircraft and engine manufacturers have watched
for signs of a rebound to the level of sales the industry enjoyed before the Great Recession of 2008. Each year, OEMs have reported some growth, but short of large one-off sales, there hasn’t been a significant boom on the horizon.
2020 Q2 ROTOR 39
“Maybe next year” has become the new mantra. Agile
companies began to diversify their product portfolios early on, reaching into new or emerging markets and developing new programs. Cost-saving engine-monitoring systems and component life-extending processes became life preservers. 2020 is no different, and the industry is beginning to adjust
its expectations. Te recovery it’s been looking for could very well not exist, especially given the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia and the global economic disruption
Opposite: Kopter hopes to achieve full certification of its light single-engine SH09 by the end of this year. Below: HAI President and CEO James A. Viola lands in Anaheim to kick off this year’s fly-in.
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