Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com June 5, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 3 Continued Second Act Users' clamor drove Kaman's heavy-lift K-MAX helicopter to an encore By Gregory Seay gseay@HartfordBusiness.com F or barely half a decade, starting in the mid '90s, Bloomfield aeroparts maker Kaman Corp.'s revenue stream included sporadic sales of a small, bug-looking helicopter whose rotor technology was rare, even for today. When sales dried up for Kaman's K-1200, or K-MAX, a single-seat, single-engine whirly- bird designed for and sold to mainly the com- mercial market, Kaman in 2000 mothballed production — six years after winning federal flight certification. Meantime, the global fleet of some three dozen K-MAXs — plus a pair of military drones — just kept flying. And flying. And flying. They are, observers say, a lasting trib- ute to the ingenuity of Charles H. Kaman, the company's late founder and a pioneer in Con- necticut's rich aerospace legacy. Time, it turns out, has smiled on the K-MAX and Kaman as an overwhelming clamor from current and prospective K-MAX owners has fueled the aircraft's journey back into produc- tion. Last month, Kaman announced the first successful flight of its relaunched K-MAX heli- copter, a debut to be followed up with the deliv- ery of two birds to China, said Terry Fogarty, Kaman's director of business development. The K-MAX is relatively easy to spot because it lacks the spinning tail rotor used for yaw, or sideways, control on most conventional helicopters, including commercial and military models from Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford. The handling characteristics of K-MAX's inter- meshing rotors that, combined with its rugged airframe, give it heavy-lift capabilities make it coveted with loggers, construction contrac- tors, farmers, even the U.S. Marines. As years have elapsed, wear and tear on the existing global fleet of K-1200s — some of which are no longer in service — has made the best-maintained examples rare and high- ly prized. An Oregon air-fleet operator says it has rejected offers to sell its two 21-year- old copters for close to their 1996 list prices of around $3.5 million. Price was $5 million each when production ended in 2000. "I'd been contacted so many times about where to find K-MAX helicopters,'' Fogarty said of aircraft-fleet operators in the U.S. and abroad. "They said, 'How can I find one?' I said, 'none are available, because the people who have them don't sell them.' '' Fogarty says he's aware of only one sale of a used K-MAX two years ago by its New Zealand owner to a U.S. buyer. So, it was a surprise to few inside Kaman, Fogarty said, when the company decided in 2015 to resume limited production of the K-MAX at Kaman assembly lines in Bloom- field and in Jacksonville, Fla., where the alu- minum cockpits are made. It's taken nearly two years to reactivate Kaman's bench of Connecticut and other domestic and overseas K-MAX suppliers for instrument controls, transmission housings and other parts, plus resolve related production issues, said Fogarty, who worked on the K-MAX program when it first launched in the early '90s. Kaman didn't declare specific production vol- umes for the aircraft. After filling initial orders, succeeding machines will be built mostly on "speculation,'' betting they won't sit unsold for long, Fogarty said. Kaman declines to say what new K-1200s sell for, but one industry publication pegs their latest pricetag at about $8 million each. Kaman so far has reallocated existing staff to K-MAX production, but may hire later to support it, Fogarty said. Deep roots The K-MAX is the embodiment of Charlie Kaman's early investment in and develop- ment of rotary aircraft. Kaman Corp. debuted its first helicopter — the K-125 — with inter- meshed, contra-rotating twin rotors in 1954. The K-125's rotors incorporated Charlie Kaman's signature development — the servo- flap controlled rotor — that allowed the K-125 and its successors to fly stably without a tail rotor. No tail rotor also means less torque — or twisting — of the airframe, extending its airworthiness and reliability. Over the years, Kaman introduced other civilian and military models. But in 1994, Kaman unveiled the K-MAX, designed and built as an "airborne pickup truck.'' It can lift externally as much as 6,000 pounds — more than its 5,100-pound dry weight and the heft of a vintage Cadillac. According to Fogarty, a Kaman veteran who was involved in development and mar- keting of the first K-1200s, most of the 38 that were built are still flying. Jerry Roberts, executive director of the New England Air Museum, on the grounds of Brad- ley International Airport in Windsor Locks, said the K-MAX comeback is remarkable because "you just don't see that kind of thing happening'' in the aviation world. (Several Kaman executives sit on the museum's board.) Neither Roberts nor Kaman can recall the revival of a civilian commercial aircraft once BY THE NUMBERS $1.81B Kaman's total sales in 2016 $1.78B Kaman's total sales in 2015 $702M Kaman's total sales from its aerospace division in 2016 $598M Kaman's total sales from its aerospace division in 2015 Two of the 10 K-MAX heavy-lift helicopters back in production at Kaman Corp.'s Bloomfield assembly facility. The K-MAX is unique for its intermeshing main rotors that negate the need for a tail rotor. 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