Rotorcraft industry transition: Gazing into the crystal ball

For the second time in four months one of the industry’s storied names has been pulled back from the abyss.

In August, agreement was reached with the creditors of MD Helicopters owner Patriarch Partners to acquire the OEM’s assets in a debit for equity swap, and for now the future seems assured. But what does it hold?

While MD still offers four types on its website, only two are in production. Compared with competitor portfolios, the offering is niche. It does beg the question: in a world where the legacy business is dominated by three players, does it make long-term sense to continue solely as a manufacturer of legacy products, especially when the industry itself is in transition?

Speaking of transitions, one of the stories of the summer is purchase agreements for large numbers of eVTOLs by airlines as part of their strategies. American and United have gone further and put their money down. My crystal ball says than when AAM comes, there will be just a few winners in the race to be the providers of choice for the passenger eVTOL market. Sadly, for my retirement fund, my crystal ball doesn’t say who those winners might be. That’s also a problem at United. As a result, the airline has chosen to spread its bets and place orders with more than one of the entrants. They may still pick wrong ’uns but at least they’ve reduced the risk of missing the boat. Meanwhile, #airlines pursuing a watch-and-wait strategy may live to rue their timidity.

Finally, as you may noticed, we are now RotorHub International. This reflects our mission to cover the whole vertical lift industry and for that coverage to be global. Besides the cleaner design, we’re increasing the spectrum of our coverage too. In addition to our usual coverage, you can expect more stories about the business of vertical lift and analysis of the trends impacting it.

– Gideon Ewers , RotorHub International Editor.

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