40th Years Retrospective: The Helicopter Industry’s [Heyday]

Dave Jensen

The 1980s was a time of new aircraft, new missions, new technologies, and limitless optimism. It was fun while it lasted.

THE FUTURE OF THE HELICOPTER NEVER looked better than it does right now." So reads the opening sentence of an industry forecast story in the January 1980 issue of Rotor & Wing. In that same story, one manufacturer boldly predicted the estimated 4,000 helicopters in the U.S. commercial fleet would more than triple in five years. And Allison Engines (now Rolls-Royce) predicted 43 percent growth in the civil helicopter market throughout the Free World (so-called because the Cold War still existed).

If ever the civil helicopter industry enjoyed a heyday, a time of high spirits and optimism, it would have been thein the 1980s as well. Indeed, during the fast-growing late 1970s, it was able to shed its coverage of short takeoff and landing aircraft — which is why the magazine’s title includes " & Wing" — and focus solely on the rotorcraft industry.

The rising tide also yielded new missions, new operators, new associations, new aircraft, and new companies producing aircraft. The 1980s was probably the most colorful period in rotary-wing history, with record-breaking flights, daring rescues, and trail-blazing journeys around the world. There also were colorful personalities, pioneers like PHI’s Bob Suggs, ERA Helicopter’s Carl Brady, Island Helicopter’s Fred Fine, and, in the North Sea oil patch, Alan Bristow, John Cameron, and Morten Hancke. The men who launched successful helicopter operations then were not bean counters; they shared