Story ID: 
Surack Buys Enstrom Helicopter
By: Mark Huber
Caption: Indiana-based Surack Enterprises bought Enstrom Helicopter Corporation after a previously-announced deal to sell the company collapsed. 
Word Count: 215
Indiana-based Surack Enterprises announced on Friday that it acquired Enstrom Helicopter, which filed for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy and shuttered operations in January. Menominee, Michigan-based Enstrom was in near-continuous operation for 64 years, manufacturing more than 1,300 light turbine and piston-powered helicopters for police, military, commercial, and private missions.
A previously-announced deal to sell the company’s assets to Midlothian, Texas-based MidTex Aviation in March collapsed. Enstrom had most recently been owned by China’s Chongqing General Aviation Industry Group (CGAG) but had at various times been owned by the Purex Corp., famed defense attorney F. Lee Bailey, and inventor Dean Kamen. 
Enstrom joins the Surack Enterprises portfolio of aviation-related businesses, including Sweet Aviation, which provides airplane charter flights, training, and rentals; Sweet Helicopters, which provides the same for rotorcraft; and aviation insurance broker Aviation Specialty Insurance. Sweet Helicopters hosts the annual Rotors ‘n Ribs helicopter fly-in in Goshen, Indiana, which includes an airshow, barbecue, and helicopter-related safety seminar. Chuck Surack, owner of Surack Enterprises (Photo: Sweet Helicopters)
Surack is owned by Chuck Surack, a helicopter pilot widely known for founding Sweetwater Sound, an online retailer of musical instruments and professional audio equipment.