Kerry Lynch stepped into the role of editor of the&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;monthly magazine in May 2022 after serving with&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;for eight years. She joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in December 2014 as a senior editor covering Washington and business aviation news. She has also served on Convention News teams, including as editor of&nbsp;HAI Convention News. Lynch previously spent 25 years with Aviation Week. During her time there, she reported for and later steered&nbsp;The Weekly of Business Aviation, oversaw business aviation content on the&nbsp;Aviation Week Intelligence Network, served on the&nbsp;Show News&nbsp;staff, and held roles as the Washington columnist for&nbsp;Business &amp; Commercial Aviation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overhaul &amp; Maintenance&nbsp;monthly magazines. In 2021 she was honored with the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and was the 2004 recipient of the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalism Excellence Award. She also has been a recipient of an Aerospace Media Award for business aviation (2022) and NBAA Gold Wing Award (2003, 2024). Lynch graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

Editor, AIN monthly magazine

Kerry Lynch

Aerometals has secured its long-awaited supplemental type certificate (STC) approval for its Sikorsky S-92 inlet barrier filter (IBF). The STC culminated a five-year certification process that involved some 100 hours of flight testing and a $6 million investment on the part of the El Dorado Hills, Calif.-based aerospace parts manufacturer.
The STC was Aerometals’s most extensive and costly process yet, as the manufacturer worked with the FAA to satisfy certification requirements. The process had slowed as the FAA has been ironing out its policy guidance on approvals for rotorcraft IBFs. “It really has been a huge undertaking for us,” said Aerometals executive director Lorie Symon. “We’ve learned a lot. The FAA has learned a lot. It is really going to give us a good basis going forward…on how we can streamline these processes and make them more efficient.”
The FAA Los Angeles Aircraft Certification Office worked closely with Aerometals, she said, as it tried to meet the “spirit of the regulation.” For development, Aerometals used the latest generation computational fluid dynamics modeling software to maximize the filter design efficiencies and predictability, including modeling for turbulence mitigation, shape design and optimization of the overall filter performance and protection characteristics.
The IBFs are designed to protect against ingestion of salt, sand and other potentially corrosive materials, and as a result, extend power margins between overhaul intervals, and reduce possibility of premature engine removals. This filter not only substantially reduces foreign object damage and engine compressor erosion, but significantly limits salt nuclei ingestion during offshore operations, the company said. Symon noted that during testing, the filter media was shown to limit well over 90 percent of salt nuclei ingestion.
The S-92 IBF STC results in no changes to published performance, she said. The IBF, however, is currently restricted in flight into known icing and flight in falling and blowing snow. Symon noted that a large number of S-92s operate in warmer locations, such as the Gulf of Mexico. But she added, “We will at some point do the falling and blowing snow flight testing. That unfortunately requires you to chase the weather.”
Aerometals worked to ensure there were not other substantive operational restrictions, she added. “That was one of the reasons the S-92 took us as long as it did. We were unwilling to accept unreasonable restrictions.” Limiting weight on a transport category helicopter such as the S-92 would have been a “deal killer,” she said. “If I can carry 20 people out to an oil rig but put a filter on and can only carry 18, I am losing more revenue than saving by using the filter.” That was not a choice that Aerometals wanted to present to potential customers.
Sikorsky had partnered with Aerometals and was willing to share extensive inlet distortion data required for the approval, Symon said. Noting that the data requirements are a significant obstacle in the FAA’s proposed policy guidance, she added, “identifying projects going forward, at least until new standards are finalized, that is something we are going to take into account. We must have either an airframe or engine manufacturer that is willing to share the data with us.”
While the STC was in progress, Aerometals had stopped taking letters of intent because of the uncertainty surrounding the timing. But with the approval in hand, “We are hitting the ground running, and the response has been tremendous,” she said. Operators in the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf of Mexico have especially shown interest.
Aerometals has begun production and was planning to ship the first several kits before Heli-Expo. At the same time, the company is eyeing an expansion that will double its footprint. The company acquired a neighboring lot and is building a second 75,000-sq-ft plant that will enable it to expand manufacturing capabilities.
As it ramps up on the S-92 filter, Aerometals already has identified future projects, including an IBF for the Airbus Helicopters H130 (formerly EC130T2). That project already has been submitted to the FAA to begin the certification process. The company has already obtained the necessary inlet distortion limit data on the project. Aerometals further is in negotiations with an engine manufacturer for another aftermarket kit.
Aerometals also offers IBF kits for various other Bell, Airbus, MD and Sikorsky models.

News and issues regarding all manner of civil and military rotorcraft and their powerplants, including helicopters, tilt rotors and unmanned air vehicles.

Aerometals Secures Siksorsky S-92 IBF Certification

The STC culminated a five-year certification process that involved some 100 hours of flight testing and a $6 million investment.

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Neelam Mathews

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

Single-engined rotorcraft will compete with Hindustan Aeronautics’ Light Utility Helicopter

Tata and Airbus Set To Build H125 Helicopters in India

Charles Alcock

News and developments about aircraft engines, including turbofan, turboprop, turboshaft and piston.

News and issues relating to civil and military unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) of all kinds and sizes, including those used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), combat (unmanned combat air vehicles, or UCAVs), law enforcement, research and other applications. Of particular focus is the FAA's planned integration of UAS into the U.S. national airspace system.

Essential news and analysis on the defense aerospace business. Your trusted source for new and ongoing programs and requirements in military aircraft (manned and unmanned), engines, avionics, weapons and associated systems, including ground-based air defense.

Evacuation of Ukrainian troops from Mariupol inspired efforts to "reinvent helicopters"

Lithuanian Start-up Takes New Approach to Emergency Air Mobility

Matt Thurber

News and information on safety procedures and concerns.

System would encourage operators to add equipment to prevent accidents

VAST Effort Explores Helicopter Safety Rating System

Aero Asset’s annual report noted a four-year peak in supply in Q4 2024

Single-engine Helicopter Market Stable, Supply Climbs

Helicopter sales for 2024 climbed 10% over 2023, including 58 Super Pumas

Airbus Helicopter Deliveries, Orders Climb During 2024

News and issues concerning the aviation charter and fractional-ownership industries and markets, including company announcements, regulations, new developments and labor issues.

Purchase marks company’s first investment in utility helicopter segment

Fundamental Advisors Acquires Utility Operator HeloAir

News and issues about aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), covering all segments of the aviation industry; and modifications for aircraft and engines. Subjects include product support of aircraft, engines and avionics, MRO company mergers, acquisitions, announcements and personnel, Airworthiness Directives, Supplemental Type Certificate approvals and other topics.

Works includes new avionics, fresh paint, ultra-leather seats, and pop-out floats

Meridian Delivers 29th Refurbished Bell 206 to FlyNYON

Jessica Reed

Issues regarding financing of aircraft; aviation insurance; tax issues for aircraft operators; new companies and people in the aviation financing and insurance industries.

News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

HAI Heli-Expo 2017

In this article

Sikorsky S-92

Aerometals

More In Rotorcraft