Robinson Helicopter (Booth 8743) will deliver the four helicopters on display this week at Heli-Expo following the conclusion of the show. Company president and chairman Kurt Robinson told AIN following a media briefing on Tuesday that interest in purchasing those helicopters was high on the opening day of the show. “I’ve already had people walk into our booth and say, ‘Are any of these available for sale because I’ll buy it,'” he said.
Three of the four—an R66 Turbine, an R66 ENG (electronic news gathering), and an R44 Raven II—have been acquired by the helicopter manufacturer’s Garland, Texas dealer, Sky Helicopters. The R66 ENG is Sky’s 16th newsgathering helicopter, and it expects to add two more markets for these turbine models to serve in the next 12 months.
The fourth helicopter, an R44 Cadet, is for the University of North Dakota’s aviation department. That will be the sixth Cadet for the university since its first acquisition of the type in 2016. “Actually, the pilots and staff are here,” Robinson said of the university representatives. “They’re a wonderful group of people.”