Established in 1975 by industry legend Mel O’Reilly, Eagle Copters has grown from a leasing business with a single helicopter to a company that offers an extensive lease fleet and full turnkey solutions for aviation customers around the world. And with a new leadership team at the helm, Eagle doesn’t intend to stop growing anytime soon.
“We’re aggressively growing on the world stage — it’s not something that Eagle ever historically did, but our global reach into emerging markets is the most appetizing for us at this time,” Tristan Beddoe, vice president of sales and marketing at Eagle, told Vertical during a recent visit to the company’s Calgary, Alberta, headquarters.
Along with aircraft leasing, the company specializes in sales, engineering, completions, upgrades, parts and components solutions, fleet management, and maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) — covering “pretty much anything between the operator and the OEM,” Beddoe said.
“It’s amazing how many people we take through the facility, and they say at the end of the tour, ‘We had no idea you guys did all that,’ ” said Wes Semeniuk, director of leasing, large accounts and customer support at Eagle, who focuses on growing the company’s lease fleet.
While Mel and his son Mike O’Reilly very much remain a fabric of the family-owned company (Mike still serves as its CEO), Eagle has been busy branching out with a global team of experts in recent years.
Along with its headquarters in Calgary, Eagle previously operated a subsidiary in Australia, (which has since been divested), and continues to run its Santiago, Chile, facility to service the South American market. Through its affiliate Ozark Aeroworks, the company has also developed a reputation for itself in the U.S. and recently acquired the T53 turboshaft engine product line from Honeywell Aerospace.
“Mel and Mike O’Reilly have created what Eagle is today,” said Jason Diniz, president of Eagle since September 2021. “Both have built this gem of a business that spans the whole spectrum of helicopter products and services. What they’ve done in the last 48 years has been tremendous.”
To help Eagle reach new global markets, Diniz is focused on identifying untapped opportunities for the company.
Introducing the Eagle Single
Eagle has long been known as a specialist with Bell medium utility helicopters, operating the second-oldest Bell customer service facility (CSF) in the world.
In 2010, the company introduced its Eagle Single — a single-engine version of the Bell 212 powered by the T53 turboshaft engine. The aircraft offers operators a 212 with reduced weight, increased payload capacity, aftermarket accessories, and lower operating costs. Already certified to fly in Canada, the U.S., Australia, Chile, Peru, Indonesia, and most recently Japan, the Eagle Single continues to expand into new markets.
In collaboration with K-R Aircraft Inc. and Akagi Helicopters Co. Ltd., Eagle announced in December 2022 the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau’s approval of the supplemental type certificate (STC) to convert a Bell 212 to an Eagle Single, allowing the aircraft to carry out missions in Japan.
The Eagle 407HP — the company’s other conversion — is powered by the Honeywell HTS900 engine. The aircraft is designed for improved performance in hot and high missions, including law enforcement, forest management, firefighting, and helicopter emergency medical services. The airframe upgrade is certified in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Chile, Indonesia, Australia, China, and Papua New Guinea.
Today, 16 Eagle Singles and 41 407HPs are carrying out missions around the world. The company celebrated its most recent completion and delivery of an Eagle Single to Nic Sacco, CEO of Savage Aviation, during HAI Heli-Expo 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. Based out of Las Vegas, Savage Aviation will use its newly acquired Eagle Single to offer bespoke skydiving experiences and unique flight opportunities to its customers.
“We are actively engaged with our engineering group to modernize the Eagle Single, and we have developed an approved STC to include a semi-glass cockpit with a complete Garmin suite of electronics,” Beddoe said.
He called the upgrade a “sleek modernization” for the Bell medium helicopter, with a terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS), a synthetic vision system, night vision capabilities and more — all designed and certified in-house.
“We have a number of different clients globally who are interested in the aircraft, given the latest modernization with the G500,” Beddoe said. “That complete cockpit is gaining a lot of traction.”
While the Eagle Single and 407HP are big checks on Eagle’s product development box, the Bell platform is just one facet of what the company specializes in today.
Recognizing an opportunity to diversify into new platforms, Eagle now covers Airbus, Sikorsky and Leonardo aircraft, specifically gaining a strong reputation for its MRO support on the Sikorsky S-76 and Leonardo AW139.
“We analyze the market on a regular basis, and a combination of that data, along with our connections in the market, help us plot out where we want to be in the future,” Diniz said. “By doing that actively, we saw trends in the market on both the S-76 and AW139.”
Eagle acknowledges it took two different approaches to the two very different models — “one on a segment that had almost fallen off the face of the earth, and the other that is constantly growing,” Diniz said.
Eagle saw an opportunity to revive the S-76 platform, which had experienced a downturn in the oil-and-gas market. Investing heavily in inventories for the model, the company now offers a full turnkey solution for the S-76, which Diniz calls “unbeatable in the market today.”
“On the AW139, that platform has always grown and continues to grow,” he said. “It’s a tremendous product, and we felt there’s space for Eagle to participate, especially with our core focus on product support with parts.”
As a fully authorized approved maintenance organization (AMO) under Transport Canada and recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) through bilateral agreements, Eagle is a Bell customer service facility, authorized Sikorsky support center and Leonardo recognized maintenance center. The company is also an approved contractor with the Canadian Department of National Defence.
Mike O’Reilly, son of company founder Mel, serves as Eagle Copters’ CEO. Heath Moffatt Photo Jason Diniz has been president of Eagle since September 2021. Heath Moffatt Photo 
An Eagle 407HP is attended to in the Eagle facility. Heath Moffatt Photo Component shop technician Kyle Pitt works on a transmission. Heath Moffatt Photo A tail boom is wheeled into Eagle’s paint booth. Heath Moffatt Photo Mathieu Imbeault and Phillipe Lacombe work on a main rotor head. Heath Moffatt Photo Avionics Technician Obinna Nwaoba checks a reading. Heath Moffatt Photo
DAO Certification
Eagle operates its own design approval organization (DAO), allowing the company to design, validate and obtain STCs for platforms within the part 27 and 29 space — a particular point of pride for the Eagle team.
“Not a lot of organizations today, whether it’s your MRO facilities or leasing facilities, have an engineering department that has a DAO certification,” Diniz said.
Eagle currently maintains more than 70 STCs with more than 150 approvals in airworthiness jurisdictions around the world, including Europe, Canada, the U.S., Japan and others.
The company continues to use its growing capabilities to carry out completions on a number of helicopter types for various missions.
“The reason why completions continue to be attractive to us is because it really brings in a different level of skill capabilities and a one-stop shop solution to customers,” Diniz said. “It also demands a very strong understanding from an engineering perspective that differentiates Eagle.”
Earning itself a reputation in North America, South America, Australia and beyond, Eagle has skillfully invested and divested its business lines to take advantage of market opportunities.
Over the years, the company has sold its subsidiaries, DART Aerospace, Eagle Audio and Eagle Australasia, to focus its attention on building its inventories. Meanwhile, it has expanded globally, finding new customers — and hopes to continue to do so through the recent acquisition of the T53 turboshaft engine through Ozark Aeroworks in Springfield, Missouri.
As an FAA part 145 certified repair station, Ozark is Eagle’s T53 engine MRO facility. Eagle had officially moved its engine shop to Ozark in 2014.
Acquiring the T53 type certification opened the door to a multitude of customers around the world in commercial and military applications.
“What we do with the T53 now is interesting because we are able to take that engine, optimize the supply chain, and make the engine platform a lot more cost effective,” Diniz said. “That intrinsically makes the helicopter platform a lot more economical.”
With an eye on future growth, Eagle has invested millions of dollars into its inventories to ensure parts availability, offering new and overhauled parts, exchanges and rotables on Bell, Sikorsky, Leonardo and Airbus platforms.
“Our newest business line — Eagle Copters Part and Components Solutions (EPCS) — is our part out division that has purchased assets and done the complete part out to support aircraft operating worldwide,” Beddoe said.
Launched in 2021, EPCS was established in response to what Eagle saw as a new opportunity to address the supply chain shortage when it comes to Bell mediums, the Sikorsky S-76 and the Leonardo AW139. In particular, Eagle has invested heavily in the S-76 platform, tearing down aged helicopters and supplying the market with hard-to-find Sikorsky parts and components.
“[EPCS is] helping the supply chain a lot. We’re getting a lot of calls for parts that you just can’t get from Leonardo or Sikorsky,” Beddoe said. “So that’s a big part of our business right now, is parts and components.”
The subsidiary supports Eagle’s lease business and component support program by supplying the market with parts and components that are in high demand in the medium market segment.
“Our spares pool is significant,” Beddoe said. “Our assets vary from the S-76 through the Bell products. We carry a significant amount of main rotor transmissions, gearboxes, as well as main rotor hubs and engines for all the platforms. At a drop of a dime, we could send gearboxes across the world to support our clients.”
A Unique Lease Offering
Today, as Eagle continues to grow its product and service offering, the company remains focused on strengthening the business line that started it all.
“Our customized lease offering is quite unique in the market,” Diniz said. “Where we differentiate ourselves on leasing is we don’t just provide the aircraft, Eagle backstops the asset with a product support plan that is unique for that customer.”
When Eagle receives a call from a customer, its support team is dedicated to responding within 24 hours with solutions that help get the aircraft operational and prevent aircraft on ground (AOG) situations. It’s a service the company now also offers to third-party operators.
Eagle’s complete component support program includes technical experts in structures, avionics and maintenance, turnkey solutions for parts and components, logistics, and overall fleet management.
“[It’s] very much the same opportunity that we offer to our lease customers in the sense that they’re paying an hourly rate for component services,” Beddoe said. “We’ve expanded this offering to include third-party aircraft, and we’ll actively engage with operators globally to onboard people to our program.”
Lease customers also benefit from Eagle’s full suite of expertise, including its engineering and completion services. They can turn to Eagle to get a helicopter that’s mission ready, fitted with customized mission-specific equipment.
Semeniuk said that since 2017, Eagle has “really established relationships with our operators in the United States, and now we’re taking it to the next level and trying to market machines for lease over in India and around the world.”
Eagle’s lease fleet has now surpassed over 70 aircraft around the world. Its most recent expansion has been into the Leonardo and Sikorsky platforms.
The company had not historically held those assets in its lease portfolio, however, “the market has showed strong demand for these types,” Beddoe said. “We are actively seeking aircraft and deploying them into new markets, as well as traditional markets that these aircraft have been operating in.”
Under the leadership of Diniz, Eagle is working to expand into new market segments around the world, keeping a close eye on the Middle East, Africa and India.
“We are determined to ensure we meet customers’ needs around the world,” Diniz said. “I think it’s a matter of time before Eagle spreads its wings even further across all its offerings. We’ve got quite a few plans in the works today.”