Auckland, New Zealand-based Airwork Group is a global aviation provider with a unique ability to provide turnkey aviation services.
The various divisions that comprise the Airwork Group offer a full complement of aviation services, which includes helicopter and fixed-wing flight operations, aircraft engineering, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services, sales, and aircraft leasing.
“We are focused in three distinct areas of industry,” said Claude Alviani, Group strategy and business development manager. “The first being fixed-wing airline operations and leasing with our Boeing 737 and Boeing 757 aircraft. The second is providing helicopter operations, leasing and sales, and the third involves the range of maintenance, repair and overhaul services, as well as modifications and upgrades predominantly for helicopters, but also for fixed-wing.”
Airwork was founded in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1936 and over the years since, it has continually evolved to meet the changing needs of its customers and to equip its staff to keep pace with technology.
“We believe that New Zealand has one of the oldest and most diverse aviation traditions,” said Alviani. “This tradition was borne out of dealing with the country’s varying topography, its isolation from the rest of the world, and its dependence on land-based economic activities.”
“Since our inception, we’ve developed industry-leading capabilities that we think sets us apart from other aviation operators. In addition to our helicopter and fixed-wing operations, we are proud of the broad range of aviation support services that our body of highly skilled aviation professionals provides. We are recognized for these world class services, holding Service Center approvals with Airbus, Honeywell, Kawasaki, Breeze Eastern, and we are a licensed distributor for a range of other aviation products from Honeywell, Genesys and Dart to mention a few.”
Another core strength at Airwork is the inventory management component of its robust supply chain and aviation supplier networks. This is a critical function of the business because its customer base spans the world: North and South America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
The company also maintains an extensive range of dynamic component overhaul capabilities for a wide range of helicopter types. Moreover, the turbine workshop can perform Hot Section Inspections (HSIs), providing repair and overhaul services for a number of engine types, and the Honeywell engine test cell enables engines to be tested, providing performance data on service repairs for customers.
The in-house avionics overhaul, instrument repair and inspection engineers and the design and manufacturing teams work closely with customers to develop specific modifications and supplemental type certificates (STCs) that provide increased performance and extended operational capabilities for the customers.
It is this range of in-house capabilities that led Airwork down the path of looking at upgrading the BK117 helicopter as a world-leading, specialty product. User organizations have an increasing desire for helicopter modifications that provide distinct safety advantages to the conduct of their flight operations.
Excellent examples of how technology has made aviation safer are visible in flight deck systems designed to help pilots avoid safety problems more common in the past, such as controlled-flight-into-terrain (CFIT) and collisions with other aircraft in flight.
Terrain awareness and warning systems and synthetic vision systems that improve a pilot’s understanding of the flight environment, were made possible following the advent of digital instrument displays and GPS, which have helped to dramatically reduce CFIT accidents.
“Similarly, airborne collision avoidance systems (ACAS) have helped to reduce the incidence of mid-air collisions between aircraft by actively monitoring the airspace around an aircraft to improve a pilot’s awareness and avoidance of conflicting traffic in the vicinity,” said Alviani.
“The BK117 Evolution, as we call it, comes about from our desire to serve those end users. To begin with, we sought to increase the engine power to meet Category ‘A’ performance and the Honeywell LTS101-850 engine modification was born.”
Airwork is the holder of the STC for this significant aircraft performance and safety improvement for the BK117-B2, with more than 50 aircraft modified to date.
However, the upgraded engine was just the beginning.
“We also wanted to defend those engines against their operating environment,” said Alviani. “So we developed the BK117 particle separator.”
In addition to this, the lightweight, nine-seat configuration enables quick change in roles between internal cargo and passenger operations. The re-engined BK117 Evolution has been identified as a great light twin aircraft for human external cargo (HEC) operators looking to upgrade from a single to the twin engine PC1 safety it provides.
Airwork is currently developing a dual hook system that will be available to HEC operators in the near future that will dramatically improve the safety of external load operations involving high value loads or construction efforts requiring the support of people on the ground.
Airwork’s modification offerings incorporated in the BK117 Evolution make for a long list. The glass cockpit offers 3D Synthetic Vision EFIS to enhance safety, reduce pilot workload, increase flexibility and lower the cost of operation.
“We believe the BK117 Evolution provides equivalent safety to new aircraft systems and the airframe remanufacturing program and PC1 performance enables this aircraft and crews to maintain the rigorous standards of safety sought by user organizations involved in day/night offshore transfer and HEMS [helicopter emergency medical services] operations.”
“Our Airwork mods allow the operator to comply with VFR [visual flight rules] and IFR [instrument flight rules] performance-based navigation requirements, which are currently being implemented around the world,” added Alviani.
“Future modifications to provide vibration health monitoring (VHM) and flight data monitoring (FDM) are in the works,” he said.
The Airwork BK117 Evolution is a refurbished aircraft. With engines that now provide PC1 performance, and an avionics suite equivalent to new generation aircraft, it’s a global winner from a long-established aviation leader.
“Worldwide, I would say there isn’t another helicopter and modification organization that is able to support a helicopter modification program like the BK117 Evolution, the way we do,” said Alviani.
