Page 23 - Flight International (January 2020)

ROTORCRAFT

From Switzerland,

a new world order

Kopter is confident its much-delayed yet highly anticipated SH09
light-single can challenge status quo in segment by offering new
levels of performance not matched by sector’s incumbents

This is the SH09, which has escaped the followed, with founder Martin Stucki leaving
DOMINIC PERRY POZZALLO, SICILY
variable conditions of its Swiss mountain in December 2016. The business also under-
ven in December, Pozzallo – nestled home as developer Kopter attempts to bring went a much-needed rebrand, renaming with
on Sicily’s south coast – is bathed in the light-single to market by the end of 2020. the more succinct Kopter and losing the SKYe
sunshine. Tucked away by the town’s But back in 2011, when the helicopter was prefix from the aircraft’s designation.
Eport is a small heliport, built to serve launched as the SKYe SH09, Kopter’s prede-
a gas platform visible a few miles offshore. cessor Marenco Swisshelicopter intended AEROSPACE OUTFIT
But the facility, Elisicilia, has other tenants that by this stage it would already have been What has followed has been the steady trans-
keen to take advantage of the region’s benign producing the light-single for four years. formation of what often felt like a hobby mas-
weather and relatively empty airspace. Even then that seemed an ambitious target querading as a business into a proper aero-
Leonardo Helicopters already had a presence for a company with next to no aerospace ex- space outfit. That has been aided by a steady
here, using it as an alternative to its Vergiate perience, no manufacturing base or supply influx of executives from established rotor-
flight-test base. chain and a helicopter that was yet to fly. craft manufacturers, including chief executive
Now, however, a new arrival is also on Inevitably, deadlines came and went – a Andreas Lowenstein and chief technical
site: sitting on the tarmac outside a small first flight initially set for 2012 eventually officer Michele Riccobono, respectively for-
hangar is a compact-looking helicopter, its red took place in 2014 – and service entry slipped mer Airbus Helicopters and Leonardo Heli-
and white paint scheme accentuated by the further and further behind. copters employees.
winter sun. Upheaval at the top of the company also In addition, staff numbers have risen to

24 | Flight International | 28 January-3 February 2020 flightglobal.com