Overlapping wildfire seasons gives Erickson new sales opportunities.
Erickson Incorporated advised Heli-Expo 2020 attendees they are looking at a market needing around 150 of the upgraded version of the S-64F Air Cranes. This is due to the overlapping fire seasons between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. As a result, the demand for the behemoth’s firefighting and heavy construction capabilities are more in demand. “Based on what we’ve seen in the market, we think that there’s a market demand of at least 50 to 100 airframes in the world,” chief executive Doug Kitani said on 28 Jan ’20, at HAI’s 2020 Heli-Expo. “A very, very significant increase in the number of airframes above today’s figures.”
The company is developing an enhanced version of their Air Crane called the S-64F+ that will feature new, more-modern full-authority digital electronic control (FADEC) engines, composite main rotor blades, advanced cockpit avionics and flight control system and an improved water cannon.
“We’re seeing things like in the firefighting realm where there’s not enough aircraft to go around! Where operators used to go between northern and southern hemisphere, we’re seeing that model break down. We saw this year the tragic fires in Australia,” Kitani said. “There’s significant demand, mostly from sovereign customers, but we think commercial customers will follow and build out bigger fleets with more capability.”
Last edited by robsrich; 11th Feb 2020 at 03:43.