AeroBrigham is known as the helicopter service provider that can get the job done — no matter what that job happens to entail.
From the smallest custom modification to large-scale maintenance, completions, refurbishment, paint and interior work, the Decatur, Texas-based company has it covered. As a testament to the company’s good work, business has been booming — even throughout the pandemic.
“We’ve grown 30 percent in the last 1.5 years,” said David Brigham, president and co-owner with his brother Danny. “We had to add more people to keep up with the workload.”
Although AeroBrigham has always taken pride in being the company that tackles even the smallest custom jobs, Brigham said that lately, more big helicopter completion contracts have been rolling through the door.
“Everything that has come to us has been huge completions in law enforcement and search-and-rescue [SAR]. We still have some small projects, but our concentration has shifted this year. Corporate and emergency medical services [EMS] work has been slower.”
For instance, the AeroBrigham team recently reconfigured a previously-owned Bell 429 for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana. The accelerated five-month project saw all the original mission equipment and avionics removed and replaced with new radios, a tactical avionics package, and AeroBrigham’s tactical flight officer (TFO) station.
The system, which is easily installed on existing cabin seat rails, was developed in conjunction with CNC Technologies as part of AeroBrigham’s previous work on a fleet of eight Bell 429s for the Jamaica Defence Force. The final aircraft was delivered in September 2022.
The staff was also busy working on a brand-new Bell 429 completion for Collier County Sheriff’s Office in Florida. Also in conjunction with CNC Technologies, which provided a military-grade encrypted microwave downlink, AeroBrigham installed a hoist camera, Trakka searchlight, MX-15 thermal imager, and digital audio system, among other state-of-the-art equipment. The company also created a custom crossover cable that allows the MX-15 equipped aircraft to accept the MX-10 as a backup, without changing anything on the helicopter.
“The Collier County aircraft was scheduled to be here for six months and we delivered it in four,” Brigham said. “It was a very tough schedule.”
He also revealed that this aircraft will be displayed at Bell’s Heli-Expo booth, allowing showgoers to examine it in person.
On the fixed-wing side, AeroBrigham delivered one Air Tractor AT-802A FireBoss aircraft in March 2022, with another new completion and two upgrades coming soon. The company also installed mission equipment and a microwave downlink on a Cirrus SR22 aircraft destined for the Harris County Sheriff in Texas.
Brigham said law enforcement and SAR customers are generally looking for the same equipment: several cameras, night vision goggle compatibility, moving map systems, a microwave downlink system, touchscreen monitors, searchlights and sometimes computer-aided dispatch and 5G Wi-Fi service. AeroBrigham is also working with Smith Myers on its Artemis cell phone identification, geolocation and communication sensor — a game-changing system for SAR and disaster relief.
Physical and operational expansion
AeroBrigham’s hot operational pace continued throughout 2022, a year that saw the team expand to 26 staff members while delivering a total of 16 airframe completions and reconfigurations.
With business booming, AeroBrigham expanded into a neighboring 42,000-square-foot (3,900-square-meter) hangar at Decatur Municipal Airport in February 2023. All helicopter operations were relocated to the new hangar, which includes an in-house paint facility, while fixed-wing work remained in the company’s original hangar.
Ultimately, though, Brigham said the goal is to bring everyone back under the same roof in a brand-new, 60,000-sq.-ft. (5,570-sq. m) facility. He expects to break ground for that project in 2023.
While most of AeroBrigham’s expansion has been calculated, some is attributed to being in the right place at the right time. That was the case when the company was offered first chance to purchase SkyDisplay, the advanced display systems division of MyGoFlight. He hopes to break ground for that project in 2023.
“It makes head-up displays [HUDs] for SR22s and Air Tractors,” Brigham explained. “We’ll be moving forward with R&D [research and development] so we can have that equipment put into helicopters, too. This expands our product offering tremendously. The potential is amazing and we expect significant growth. It’s really good for firefighting, for example — it gives them the ability to see hot spots, see through light rain and fog, or smoke when integrated with a thermal camera or EVS [enhanced vision system].”
In addition to SkyDisplay HUDs, AeroBrigham’s product line also includes a previously developed Bell 505 helicopter accessory fitting, approved by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in September 2022. The new supplemental type certificate (STC) covers the installation of a secure attachment point for personal restraint harnesses during doors-off operations.
To elevate its profile, AeroBrigham also sponsors the “Straight and Level” TV show on Amazon Prime. Season 3 will be released soon, Brigham said.
“We never really thought it would be a big marketing tool, but it has brought us a fair amount of business,” he said of the show. “One thing it’s emphasized is how important branding is to your business.”
Despite its growth, AeroBrigham still puts quality first.
“A lot of our expansion is due to the good relationships we have, including our relationship with the FAA,” Brigham reflected. “We have a reputation for providing good service at a competitive cost. We can take on projects that a lot of companies can’t take on. We’re always striving to increase our capabilities and maintain quality, even though we’ve grown.”
