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Thoroughbred Aviation Maintenance has secured two five-year contracts with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to maintain two Airbus H120 utility helicopters.
Thoroughbred will begin by upgrading the aircraft with Garmin automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) avionics, and by adding Technisonic tactical radios.
Thoroughbred will also carry out routine maintenance, as well as any unscheduled maintenance, over the life of the contract.
“The fact that we’re able to continue to grow and add additional state, local and federal government contracts, is extremely exciting for us,” said Joe Otte, co-owner of Thoroughbred Aviation Maintenance.
“It’s well within our capacity, and it’s the direction we wanted to go.”
Thoroughbred Aviation Maintenance was founded as Thoroughbred Helicopters in 1988 and was acquired by RJ Corman Railroad group in 2005.
The company was subsequently renamed RJ Corman Aircraft Maintenance, and Joe Otte was brought on in 2009 to oversee its transformation.
In 2016, Joe Otte and his business partner Todd Case acquired the company and proudly reinstated the Thoroughbred name.
Now, the company has locations at five airports in Georgetown, Somerset, Danville and Richmond, Kentucky, and also provides mobile maintenance. It also has a full service aircraft paint shop located at Big Sandy Regional Airport in eastern Kentucky.
Thoroughbred is an Airbus Service Center and maintains aircraft as small as a helicycle and as large as an Airbus AS365 N3+, as well as Robinson, Bell and MD helicopters.
The company is also an authorized avionics installer for Garmin, Cobham, Wescam, FLIR, Churchill Navigation, and several other leading brands.
Thoroughbred also has a maintenance contract with the USDA for three OH-6A Cayuse helicopters and has several law enforcement contracts in Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to continue our relationship with the USDA through this new contract,” said Otte. “We value this relationship a great deal, and we look forward to building upon it as we move forward.”
