Latest from Bill Wagstaff

Like the old blues song goes, “It’s been a long time coming.

In what has been the biggest flurry of notams, TFR issuances and general uncertainty since 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation

The first question to Marc Paganini, freshly appointed CEO of American Eurocopter (AEC), is the obvious one.

In 1965, Indonesian president Sukarno characterized the tumultuous (he was overthrown) political period to come as “The Year of Living Dangerously,” the ti

In a decision directly in opposition to an earlier conclusion by the NTSB, a federal court jury in Kentucky has found Goodrich Avionics completely liable f

In a bid to rejuvenate its sales, Enstrom Helicopter is beefing up its sales and marketing efforts with a newly established network of 11 dealers in the U.

Eleven subcontractor employees have been arrested on charges they used fake immigration documents and lied about their pasts to get security clearances at

TS Eliot may have written that “April is the cruelest month,” but he didn’t try to make a living operating helicopters.

In the face of what market forecasters predict will be nearly another full decade of flat civil helicopter sales, manufacturers have been loath to risk pre

They’re the unsung heroes of the highwire, the workers who straddle live high-tension transmission lines, wires literally sizzling with their lethal load.

As the vertical lift industry convenes in Dallas next month (February 9 to 11) for the 55th HAI Heli-Expo trade show and meeting, it is a dazed and uncerta

Effective January 23, the FAA is codifying the provisions of Title VIII of the National Parks Air Tour Management Act of 2000.

Following up on the strategy it announced at last year’s HAI to expand in the helicopter parts and service market, Bell Helicopter Textron has announced th

Tentatively known as the S-76C++, the upgraded Sikorsky is powered by Turbomeca’s new Arriel 2S2 engine.

Remember that day in early spring when suddenly it seemed as if every flower that could bloom actually did, unnoticed and overnight? That’s what happened a

Providing proof that persistence pays off, Sikorsky Aircraft received in the week before Christmas a most welcome present: type certification of its S-92 m

Taking its place on Bell Helicopter’s Arlington, Texas, tiltrotor test stands for the first time last month, the long-awaited first of a planned four Bell/

Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC) has admitted to the beginning of studies intended to result in a new family of light turbine engines derived from the basi

Just when you think everything that can be done with the basic SEI Industries Bambi bucket  has been done, the Delta, British Columbia, Canada-based c

Honeywell is developing an advanced growth version of the LTS101 turboshaft.

While pledging to retain its North American headquarters in Grand Prairie, Texas, French engine maker Turbomeca has announced plans to open a new service,

Scandinavian countries are famous for going their own way and it seems only fitting that one of what was originally four nations participating in the Nordi

Three of the eight U.S.

The U.S.

For those toiling for oil on the roiling North Sea, the stormy nature of that piece of water keeps the possibility of rescue constantly in mind.

Bell Helicopter Textron last month announced plans to lay off 270 workers at its Fort Worth-area plants.

A Boeing Vertol BV-107 operated by Columbia Helicopters of Portland, Ore., crashed in August during a maintenance check flight in southern Montana, killing

An era has ended in the helicopter offshore oil-support business with Carroll Suggs, wife of Petroleum Helicopters Inc.

This is a story about an airport in the American West surrounded by towering mountains, an airport nestled amid staggering scenic beauty and smack in the m

As the month of May came to a close, a team of Boeing engineers were putting the finishing touches to a one-of-a-kind flying machine at an outpost of that