When a friend told Brad Seibold he wished he could transfer his helicopter from the hangar to the ramp as easily as he backed his car out of his garage, it sounded like an intriguing challenge for someone with no experience in aerospace.
The concept seemed simple: make moving a helicopter as easy as operating a garage door opener. What Seibold and that friend–who became the original founder of Heliwagon–achieved was anything but: a sophisticated, reliable remote-controlled landing and ground transport system that eliminates the need for tugs and tows.
Heliwagon is an all-weather wireless, remote-controlled landing and transportation dolly with industrial-grade drive wheels and a durable, non-skid polyurethane coating resistant to fuels, hydraulic fluids and other chemicals that has evolved to meet the demands of a wide range of helicopter operators. It’s also eye-catching–operators who see one for the first time usually have the same reaction: “I want one.”
“A lot of people tell me it is the coolest thing they have bought outside of their helicopter,” said Seibold, Heliwagon’s president.
With a wireless range of 500 feet, the platform can be easily maneuvered from inside or outside the helicopter, allowing a pilot to position it to always land nose into the wind. While that has obvious appeal for private operators, the Heliwagon has found traction with emergency management services and small fleet operators who need to move rapidly from the hangar to the ramp.
Since the platform was first introduced in 2009, Heliwagon has built a reputation on customer service that has driven modest but steady sales growth. In 2016, however, the company expanded its network of distributors into Europe and Latin America, attracting sales in Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, and Denmark, among others. In the past 12 months, international sales went from 10 percent of the company’s business to almost 45 percent.
Oscar Castellanos, an associate with Trinity Aviation in Georgetown, Texas, said his company became a Heliwagon distributor to “offer our international VIP customers just one more thing to make their helicopter ownership easier and stylish.” The benefit, he added, is no longer having to get under your helicopter to position brackets: “It’s just land and roll.”
Performance has been a key selling feature for customers in Mexico who can now move their helicopters easily with only one person, said Manuel Perez, executive director of Ingeniería y Proyectos de La Laguna (IPL).
“We have not had to assist our clients with any additional service or maintenance,” he said. “The platforms work excellent in any weather.”
For Daniel Romero, chief executive officer of Costa Rica-based Helicorp, there is little reason for private owners or fleet operators not to invest in the platform. “It is the best add-on. It’s safer, easier and faster than regular handling wheels.”
“It is quite a revolutionary product. There is not much similar to it in the marketplace,” said Ruud Kleinendorst, chief executive officer of NEDAERO, a former subsidiary of CHC Helicopter in the Netherlands that has grown from an aircraft and helicopter electronic components manufacturer to a repair shop supporting a range of European operators, including the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
NEDAERO became a dealer for Heliwagon in late 2016 and, like Seibold, quickly found that while many operators had never heard of the remote-controlled dolly, once they saw it in action, they wanted one.
From initial sales efforts in Western Europe and Scandinavia, NEDAERO expanded its marketing into Eastern and Southern Europe. Individual operators were the primary focus, but Kleinendorst has seen wide interest from first responders and traffic monitoring services that often rely on rail systems to move their fleets to and from hangars, and believes there might even be opportunities with European militaries.
“They are quite positive about a system that can drive without being bound to rails,” he said, noting that once potential operators start to play with the platform, they quickly become hooked.
In 2017, Heliwagon expanded its product line with the release of the XL, a larger and heavier platform. The Heliwagon XL is available in 14 x 16 and 16 x 16 configurations and can transport helicopters with a max gross takeoff weight up to 15,000 pounds, a significant increase over the previous capacity of 8,000 pounds. It also offers greater variable speed control for movement in the hangar and on the ramp.
“It is really to take care of that heavier helicopter,” Seibold said.
As Heliwagon approaches its 200-unit milestone, 2018 is shaping up to be a breakthrough year. From company officials to its growing list of distributors, all see potential customers who may find almost as much joy in a dolly as they do in their helicopters.
