View of the show floor from Heli-Expo 2010, held Feb. 20-23 in Houston, Texas. The show featured 595 exhibitors and more than 16,000 attendees, according to estimates. Photo credit: Ernie Stephens, Editor-at-Large

A maintenance test pilot conducts engine vibration checks using Goodrich’s helicopter health management system cockpit display unit on a 101st Airborne Black Hawk in Iraq. Check out Dale Smith’s Helicopter Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) Update 2K10 in this month’s issue. Photo courtesy of Goodrich

A steady drumbeat of battle-damaged helicopters, like the H-60 shown here, comes to Corpus Christi Army Depot for repairs, maintenance and upgrades. Like many MRO centers, CCAD employs lean and Six Sigma. But it also adopted a management tool that has it enter the world of WIP, buffers and the theory of constraint. David Jensen explains how CCAD tackled a growing workload in this month's cover story. Photo courtesy of Sikorsky.

The PowerFlare Safety Light is a rugged signal and illumination device. About the size of a hockey puck, it can withstand being run over by large vehicles or dropped from aircraft, is waterproof to 80-foot depth—or deeper with a deep-dive option—and is intrinsically safe, according to the manufacturer. For more information about this and other products, check out Rotor & Wing’s 2009 Editors' Choice Product Guide in the December issue. More

Earlier this year, Frasca International became the first organization to receive Level 7 qualification from FAA for its Eurocopter AS350B2 flight training device (FTD). Based at the FlightSafety International learning center in Tucson, Ariz., the FTD features FlightSafety’s VITAL X visual system, which supplies a 220 by 100-degree wrap-around view, including 60 degrees down and 40 degrees up. Photo shows Chuck McCabe, program manager for the AS350 and Learjet 20/35 at FlightSafety Tucson, at the controls of the FTD. For more information about this and other products, check out the Rotor & Wing 2009 Editors' Choice Product Guide throughout the December issue. More

Rotor & Wing honored the winners of the 2009 Helicopter Heroism Awards during a luncheon at the Search & Rescue Summit in September. From left to right are Maryland State Police Sgt. Nate Wheelock and Pilot Jim MacKay; U.S. Park Police Sgt. Jeffrey Hertel; Diane Ramage, wife of U.S. Forest Service Inspector Pilot James Ramage, who accepted the award on his behalf; U.S. Park Police Sgt. Kevin Chittick; Ginger Ramage, daughter of James Ramage; and U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Steve Bonn, Lt. Brian McLaughlin and AMT2 Robert DeBolt. Not shown is Coast Guard AST2 O’Brien Hollow, who also took part in the 2008 USCG rescue operation involving the Alaska Ranger. Photo by Mark Cavich.