When the scope of work first popped up on his computer, David Brigham admits his initial response was one of surprise. The list of modifications that the Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) wanted for the completion of a Bell 407 ran over several pages and covered more than 70 items.
AeroBrigham specializes in tailored completions and refurbishments. Whether a customer needs it, wants it or merely hopes for it, the Decatur, Texas, company has built its reputation on making that list a reality.
“We don’t do much in the way of cookie-cutter aircraft,” said Brigham, president and co-owner. However, even this seemed a little daunting to the aircraft completions veteran.
The MCSO provides a wide range of services, including air patrol, search and rescue, special-incident response, firefighting, and marine services. What they required was a complex, fully integrated, multi-mission aircraft.
Among the many features detailed on MCSO’s spreadsheet were high-visibility crew door windows; a rescue hoist and camera; floats; a cargo hook; a Bambi Bucket for water drops; and a 3,000-pound, 50-foot (1,360-kilogram, 15-meter) line.
For the cockpit, there was a host of new avionics. This included dual Garmin GTN 650s; Garmin G500 electronic flight display with hoist camera and FLIR/map video integrated for the pilot; Northern Airborne Technology audio panels; Technisonic TDFM-9100 multi-band airborne FM transceiver; two large 12- and 15-inch mission displays with integrated moving maps and keyboards; FLIR Systems Star Safire 380-HDc high-definition multi-spectral imaging system; and a Churchill navigation system with full Wi-Fi access, computer-aided dispatch and video streaming interfaced with the camera and navigation system. All of this was to be connected to a Serastar beyond-line-of-sight downlink system operating on a 4G LTE network–“the first of its kind in any civilian aircraft,” said Brigham.
And that was just a fraction of the wish list.
The cabin required an aft tactical-flight-officer station with the same capabilities as the cockpit, including a 15-inch Macro-Blue monitor, Technisonic RC-9100 remote control head, audio panel and keyboard. Redundancy was a requirement throughout so the aircrew could control sensors, the camera, hoist and other systems from the front or rear of the aircraft.
“We gave them everything in the aircraft they could have possibly wished for and then some, and we stayed within their original budget,” Brigham recalled of the project that began in October 2017 and which the customer received by February 2018.
Although AeroBrigham was formed only four years ago by David and his brother Danny, the duo previously owned United Rotorcraft Solutions. Their experienced team has customized numerous aircraft for law enforcement, emergency medical service (EMS), search and rescue, and corporate customers from the company’s 15,000-square-foot (1,395-square-meter) hangar at the Decatur Municipal Airport.
However, MCSO’s Bell 407 presented a unique challenge.
“Pretty much every completion we do is a one-off. Customers often want things that have never been done before,” said Brigham. “But the level of complexity on this was pretty intense. Just physically being able to shoehorn everything into the aircraft was a big challenge. But it was a fun challenge.”
While fitting the numerous components into the cockpit and cabin of the 407 without exceeding weight restrictions posed a significant puzzle, ensuring all the different systems from the various manufacturers communicated and functioned as the MCSO required seemed an even greater challenge.
“That was a bit of a daunting task,” acknowledged Brigham. “Thankfully, all the systems work well together, so it wasn’t that difficult a project once we got into it.”
However, to ensure full redundancy in both the front and rear of the aircraft, AeroBrigham installed two Atom computers to power the Churchill nav system, “something Churchill has never done before,” he said.
While the completed helicopter ended up a few hundred pounds lighter than the average EMS aircraft, “There is literally no room anywhere for even the smallest piece of avionics, unless you start putting it in the baggage compartment,” said Brigham.
“Our goal with this project became to provide them with the absolute best tool anybody in law enforcement could have.”
It would appear Brigham’s team have succeeded. A year after entering service, the Bell 407 has accumulated almost 400 flying hours and become a showpiece for both AeroBrigham and the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
“They absolutely love the helicopter,” said Brigham. “They have people from all over the country coming to their facility to see how they have integrated it and whether it can be emulated elsewhere.”
No matter the make or model, AeroBrigham has proven it can turn any list of needs, wants or even wishes into reality.
