Boeing Defence Australia Completes 50,000 Flight-Support Hours for Bell 206B-1 Kiowa

Boeing Defence Australia (BDA), a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company today announced it has completed 50,000 flight support hours for the Australian Defence Force's fleet of 19 Bell 206B-1 Kiowa helicopters.

BDA provides the Australian Army with pilot and aircrew training, fleet maintenance and support services for the Bell 206B-1 Kiowa and S-70A-9 Black Hawk helicopters as part of the Army Aviation Training and Training Support (AATTS) program based at Oakey.

"This is a significant milestone for the team and I congratulate everyone, past and present, who has participated in achieving this result," said Matthew Sibree, project manager for the BDA AATTS program. "Throughout our team's 16 years of supporting this platform, we have continuously worked to improve maintenance processes, enabling the Kiowa to fly up to 6,000 hours per year. Most civilian platforms average anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 flight hours per year.

"This program is unique because it involves both operational maintenance and deeper level maintenance," Sibree added.

The customer can program the aircraft to complete up to 50 missions per day, and the BDA maintenance team is responsible for servicing each aircraft before and after every mission.

"Boeing has provided excellent support within those 50,000 hours and contributed greatly to the training outputs required of Army Aviation aircrew training," said Lt. Col. Scott Benbow, Commanding Officer at the School of Army Aviation, Army Aviation Training Centre at Oakey. "The Australian Army's relationship with Boeing is a fine example of how industry and defense, when well combined, can achieve very good results."

BDA will continue to work on the Kiowa platform for at least the next three years, until Air 9000 Phase 7 -- the replacement helicopter training system for both the Australian Navy and Army -- enters service.

BDA, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company and a business unit of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, is a leading Australian aerospace enterprise. With a world-class team of nearly 2,000 employees at 13 locations throughout Australia and two international sites, BDA supports some of the largest and most complex defense projects in Australia.