First Aviation Services Inc. announced a definitive agreement to acquire Heliblade of Anderson, California. Heliblade, founded in 2008 by Pablo Martinez, a career aviation helicopter professional, is one of the best-known maintenance providers for Bell, Airbus and Leonardo main and tail rotors on the West Coast.
With the addition of Heliblade to First Aviation’s existing helicopter MRO capabilities, the company simultaneously announced the formation of the First Aviation Rotary Wing Group (“RWG”) creating a national footprint for rotor blade and dynamic component repair. Heliblade joins First Aviation’s two other helicopter rotor blade centers of excellence, Aviation Blade Services Inc. (“ABS”) of Kissimmee, Florida, and Piedmont Propulsion Systems LLC (“PPS”) of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Together, the three maintenance facilities cover the most popular models of Sikorsky, Bell, Airbus and Leonardo helicopters main and tail rotor blades and an expanding portfolio of dynamic components.
ABS is recognized as the independent leader in Sikorsky S-70 / UH-60 Black Hawk rotor blade depot-level repair, with U.S. Army source approval for both the main and tail rotor blade and provides rotor blade support for classic Sikorsky helicopters such as the S-58, S-61, and S-64. As part of the expansion, ABS will develop capability in the Bell, Airbus and Leonardo product lines and support the expansion of full technical capability on the UH-60/S-70 at Heliblade. Piedmont Propulsion Systems LLC has FAA certification to repair S-76 rotor blades, UH-60 rotor blades and hubs, as well as U.S. Army source approval to overhaul the UH-60 hub.
First Aviation will operate its Rotor Wing Group (RWG) under the direction of John Brennan, currently ABS’s General Manager and Paul Bolton, Chief Operating Officer of First Aviation Services Inc.
Pablo Martinez, founder of Heliblade said, “I’m very pleased that Heliblade will be part of the First Aviation family. They have a multi-decade dedication to the aerospace industry and consistent history of investing in their businesses.” Mr. Martinez will remain part of the company during the transition. All employees of Heliblade have been retained as part of the acquisition.
Mr. Bolton said of the combination, “First Aviation’s Rotor Wing Group brings together three respected MRO companies with extraordinary rotor blade and dynamic component capability to service our worldwide customer base. We look forward to welcoming Heliblade as part of First Aviation and leveraging each facility’s experience, technical capability and engineering resources across all three RWG locations.” Together, the Rotor Wing Group has over 100,000 ft2 of space dedicated to rotor blade repair and related services.
This press release was prepared and distributed by First Aviation Services.
