Lectern Aviation To Acquire The Heavy-Lift Aircraft With Delivery Slated For 2017

The Air Vehicles and MRO division of Kaman Aerospace Group has executed an agreement for delivery in 2017 of two manned K-MAX heavy-lift utility helicopters with Lectern Aviation Supplies Co., Ltd. (Lectern) of China.

The orders are the first to be received from a Chinese customer, and represent the introduction of the K-MAX into China’s large and growing aviation market. The first two helicopters will begin operations fighting fires for the China Department of Forestry. “The K-MAX has proven itself worldwide as a very reliable, low-maintenance helicopter with high availability rates, attributes that will help meet China’s growing demand for a responsive, heavy-lift, utility helicopter” stated Simon Lau, Director of Sales for Lectern.

“This agreement with Lectern represents the continued growth of confidence in the K-MAX helicopter from customers around the world” stated Terry Fogarty, Director, Business Development, K-MAX Helicopter Programs at the Kaman Air Vehicles and MRO division. “We are confident that customers in China will appreciate the reliability and high, hot performance of the K-MAX helicopter demanded by firefighting missions. The Chinese market possesses significant market potential for the K-MAX and we are working to capitalize on these additional opportunities.”

K-MAX aircraft are used around the world for firefighting, logging and other missions requiring repetitive aerial lift capabilities. The U.S. Marine Corps maintains two unmanned K-MAX aircraft developed with Lockheed Martin. These aircraft successfully supported the U.S. Marine Corps in Afghanistan for thirty-three months from 2011-2014 carrying more than 4.5 million pounds of cargo. Additional unmanned firefighting and humanitarian missions for K-MAX are also being developed and tested.

(Source: Kaman news release. Image from file)

FMI: www.kaman.com