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Columbia Helicopters has used bubble doors for its roughly 50-year history of flying external loads. The company plans to use bubble doors on its Model 234 (pictured) and Model CH-47D Chinooks. Columbia Helicopters Photo

On the bubble

By Ben Forrest | November 21, 2016

Estimated reading time 4 minutes, 44 seconds.

Columbia Helicopters and Leading Edge Composites have collaborated to create a new, lightweight bubble door for Columbia Model 234 and CH-47 Chinook helicopters.

Columbia Helicopters has used bubble doors for its roughly 50-year history of flying external loads. The company plans to use bubble doors on its Model 234 (pictured) and Model CH-47D Chinooks. Columbia Helicopters Photo
Columbia Helicopters has used bubble doors for its roughly 50-year history of flying external loads. The company plans to use bubble doors on its Model 234 (pictured) and Model CH-47D Chinooks. Columbia Helicopters Photo

The product cuts the weight of the original door by about 20 percent, has no distortion and is a direct replacement without any aircraft modifications, said Brian Arni, president and chief operating officer of Leading Edge Composites.

“So far it’s been really well-appreciated by the pilots,” he said.

Bubble doors are a staple at Columbia, which has been flying external loads for 50 years and has converted Columbia Model 234 and CH-47D Chinooks in its fleet.

“We’ve always flown a bubble door,” said Robert Roedts, the company’s director of engineering.

“In 2014 we started acquiring our CH-47Ds from the [United States] Army and knew, since we were going to be doing external loads, that we were going to have to do bubble doors again for those.”

Leading Edge Composites was a natural choice to help develop them — the companies have been working together for years.

Columbia specified what it wanted out of the door and Leading Edge did all the design work, said Roedts.

Columbia also did structural testing and flight testing on the doors and provided feedback to Leading Edge for updates.

“It was many, many hours of doing different flight maneuvers, also just making sure that it worked, given the work that we do here at Columbia,” said Roedts.

“Because it’s all about doing external loads. If the pilots can’t use that door how it is, then it makes their jobs really difficult — to do the job that people expect us to.”

Brian Arni, president and chief operating officer of Leading Edge Composites, stands with a bubble door his company developed with Columbia Helicopters for Model 234 and Model CH-47D Chinooks. Ben Forrest Photo
Brian Arni, president and chief operating officer of Leading Edge Composites, stands with a bubble door his company developed with Columbia Helicopters for Model 234 and Model CH-47D Chinooks. Ben Forrest Photo

Leading Edge is working toward getting parts manufacturer approval (PMA) for the door and hopes to sell it to military and possible commercial customers.

“It’s a complete replacement,” said Arni.

“There’s no modifications that you’ve got to do the airframe or anything. It just snaps right in.”

Leading Edge Composites is a full-service design, engineering and manufacturing firm specializing in aviation, aerospace and defense.

About half of its business is in helicopters and half is in fixed-wing aircraft.

“We were one of the top 10 suppliers for Sikorsky and we’re a turn-to shop for them,” said Arni. “We’ve been doing business with them for such a long time, they know our capabilities. We’re fast on our feet, where you can turn on a dime.”

Leading Edge Composites also works with Mecaer Aviation Group, Metro Aviation and Firehawk Helicopters, said Arni.

“We’ve been around long enough to where these guys are starting to know who we are and what we’re capable of doing,” he added. “We’re hoping that going through this will maybe bring some other companies saying, ‘Hey, can you do that for us?’”

“We could do it for any helicopter.”

As for Columbia, it plans to use the bubble door in all the Columbia Model 234s and CH-47s in its fleet.

“We’ve got a year and a half of experience with them now. Everybody seems to be very happy with them,” said Roedts.

“Altogether it’s been a good success for everybody, from maintenance to operations and also design.”

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