Civilian Uses of Helicopters

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The first production helicopters were built for the military, which has been their largest user. In addition to their military function, these aircraft also have offered great promise for civil government and commercial customers even though they are complicated and expensive machines. Thousands of helicopters have performed many commercial and civil functions throughout the United States and worldwide.

The first helicopter to enter commercial use was the Sikorsky S-51. But the most popular early commercial helicopters were the light utility craft such as the Bell 47. These aircraft were used for many different jobs that required remote operations in areas that fixed-wing aircraft could not access.

Helicopters were also used by civilian government agencies, such as police departments. Police used helicopters to monitor traffic and even to catch speeders. Fire departments occasionally used them to monitor brushfires, rescue people from tall buildings, and drop chemicals on forest fires.

Also in the 1950s, ranchers began using helicopters to reach distant parts of their property and even to herd cattle. Farmers also equipped some helicopters for crop-dusting.

British European Airways launched the first commercial passenger service in June 1950, travelling between Liverpool, England, and Cardiff, Wales, using a Westland-Sikorsky S-51. New York City's first helicopter station began operating from a pier on the East River on May 18, 1949. On July 9, 1953, New York Airways became the first scheduled passenger helicopter air carrier to operate in the United States.

But early helicopters were slow and noisy and could not carry many passengers. By the 1960s, when larger military helicopters like the Boeing-Vertol CH-46 had entered service, some airlines anticipated creating commercial " heliports" in the centre of New York and other cities that would allow passengers to fly from downtown to major airports such as LaGuardia and JFK airports. Boeing-Vertol even began to market civilian versions of its large helicopters. The airlines and helicopter manufacturers anticipated that the primary customers would be businessmen who were on tight schedules and had the money to pay for expensive helicopter services. This market never developed, however, and most commercial heliport proposals died by the 1970s. However, helicopters did enter extensive use as corporate transports.

Commercial passenger helicopters did establish niche markets in other areas, such as the offshore oil business. Early offshore oil platforms had crews that stayed aboard for long periods of time. This was unattractive to potential workers. But the advent of the helicopter allowed crews to be rotated fairly easily—replacement crews could now reach a drilling platform in an hour by air rather than in ten hours by boat. In fact, in the United States, by the 1960s and 1970s, oil crews became highly mobile, often travelling cross-country by commercial air to take a two-week tour on an oil platform before returning home. The helicopter made this possible. They were also used for oil surveying missions to remote areas.

Early commercial helicopters were often ex-military aircraft, such as the Sikorsky H-34 and its variants. They were usually converted to carry more seats. The Bell Huey and its commercial variants such as the Model 212 and 214 have been popular for servicing offshore oil rigs.

Helicopters are also used in a number of unusual and unexpected commercial tasks. They are used to drop seeds over inaccessible territory, such as hills and mountains stripped clean after forest fires or logging operations. They are also used in the firefighting role, usually under contract to state and local governments. They can drop foam or water with precision over wildfires and, unlike airplanes, can refill their tanks without landing.

As it had in other fields, the military helicopter mission soon crossed over to the civilian world, such as medical evacuation (" medevac" ). In 1965, 34 hospitals in the United States had heliports.

Finally, helicopters are used extensively by local television stations to monitor breaking news events, as well as traffic. They have also added a third dimension to movie photography, allowing the camera to film things that were impossible in the early days of motion pictures.

The Irkutsk Aviation Plant

The IRKUT Corporation has unified a number of prominent design and manufacturing companies — Irkutsk Aviation Plant, Beriev Aircraft Company, Yakovlev Design Bureau, BETA AIR Company and some others. It is able to conceive, design, build, deploy, and support top-of-the-line aircraft. The IRKUT Corporation’s main products are combat aircraft of the Su-30 family. The Corporation is a prime contractor in manufacturing the Su-30MKI multi-role fighters for the Indian Air Force. The Corporation is also developing and manufacturing Be-200 multipurpose amphibious planes, Yak-130 combat training aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and components for Airbus passenger airliners. The Irkutsk Aviation Plant is the major manufacturing facility of the IRKUT Corporation. This powerful processing center is capable of

implementing a full range of tooling design, production preparation, manufacturing, and after-sales support of various aircraft. Due to advanced quality management system, the Irkutsk Aviation Industrial Association was the first enterprise of the Russia's aviation industry to be granted the ISO¹ 9002 Certificate of compliance with the international quality standards in 1997.

Since 1934 this enterprise has been manufacturing aircraft of over twenty types, developed by virtually every aviation design bureau of the USSR and Russia. Aircraft manufactured in Irkutsk were exported to 37 nations worldwide.

Currently, the enterprise implements production manufacturing of the Su-30MK Multirole Combat Aircraft and the Be-200 Multipurpose Amphibian. The Be-200 multipurpose amphibious aircraft is manufactured in series at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant. The base firefighting variant of this aircraft was certified in accordance with the domestic airworthiness rules and was granted with the Type Certificate on 15 August 2001. The Be-200ChS aircraft, developed and manufactured for the Russia's Ministry for Emergencies, was granted with the Type Certificate for search-and-rescue operations on 20 June 2003. Currently, the company conducts preparation work in order to ensure certification of the Be-200 aircraft in Europe.

Great attention is paid to development of manufacturing technologies, development and modernization of the production base, with millions USD² invested annually in these areas.

To ensure high reliability of final products, all components and materials are subjected to thorough manufacturing entry tests and inspections. Additionally, the ground-test facility is used for inspection, final tuning and adjustment of avionics and all aircraft systems.

The flight test center is completely suited for carrying out flight tests of aircraft produced, as well as for testing their flight-and-navigation and weapon systems. The team of test pilots possesses vast experience and expertise in testing aircraft of various types in harsh environment and adverse weather conditions.

Notes:

¹ISO – International Organization for Standardization

²USD – US dollar

Insert the words from the box:

1) unmanned 2) multi-role fighters 3) aviation plant 4) multipurpose amphibious planes

5) countries 6) experienced flyers 7) combat training aircraft

8) produces and manufactures 9) passenger airliners 10) aircraft

1) There is an … in Irkutsk.

2) It … some kinds of aircraft.

3) They are the Su-30MKI …, Be-200 …, Yak-130 …, … aerial vehicles and components for Airbus …

4) … manufactured in Irkutsk were exported to 37 … worldwide.

5) Produced airplanes, their flight-and-navigation and weapon systems are tested by … of the flight test center of the plant.

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