TOUR
MD Helicopters’ factory in Arizona, and watch a demo flight in an MD 500
Bankruptcy behind it, MD Helicopters is determined to put customers first.
By Stacey Hershauer Photography by HAI/Mark Bennett
W
HEN IT COMES TO ROTARY-WING testimonials, few can best that of MD Helicopters, whose aircraft have been called the “Ferraris of helicopters.” Pilots who fly MDs say
“it feels like you wear this aircraft.” Customer feedback like this has fostered a sometimes
cultlike following for the brand. But as the company itself will attest, reclaiming the OEM’s position as a trusted service provider following its emergence from bankruptcy in August 2022 won’t happen overnight. Te company did power-boost itself toward that goal,
however, with a substantial mid-2022 leadership overhaul, installing new president and CEO Brad Pedersen, new VP of Aftermarket Sales and Support Ryan Weeks, and other critical leaders in areas such as sales, finance, marketing, and customer support. Now, one year later, this leadership group, in partnership
with more than 300 MD employees, has accomplished much—but has much left still to do.
Deep Roots, High Achievements MD’s heritage can be traced to 1932, when Howard Hughes established Hughes Aircraft Co., which was part of the
Hughes group of companies for five decades, until its 1984 purchase by McDonnell Douglas. A merger with Boeing followed in 1997, followed by several additional ownership changes before the company evolved into the MD Helicopters of today. Along the way, the company developed the OH-6 Cayuse, a single-engine light helicopter produced for the US Army. With a distinctive teardrop design that provided excellent visibility and a four-bladed rotor system prized by pilots for its agility, the OH-6 set world records for speed, endur- ance, and time to climb. Its civil variant, the Hughes 500, is the basis for today’s MD 500 series of aircraft, which over the decades has developed a host of steadfast users. One loyal MD customer is the Huntington Beach
(California) Police Department. “We were the fifth helicopter agency established in the US and have literally grown up with MD,” says Jerry Goodspeed, a sergeant in the depart- ment’s Air Support Unit. “We were one of the first to receive a NOTAR [aircraft] in 1998, and we purchased a total of five before launching our search for replacements in 2021. We found that an MD—the 530F this time—was still the perfect platform for our mission. “We fly at 800 to 1,500 ft., and sometimes up to 3,000 ft. at night to limit the sound, usually doing rotations over a
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