StandardAero, celebrating its 50th anniversary in rotary-wing aviation this year, is maintaining a steady business flow in the downturn with programs such as its proprietary coatings and engine optimization. At the same time, the company is eyeing international opportunities and possible new platforms to position it for long-term growth.

StandardAero (Booth 10353) and its predecessor companies have a 106-year heritage, said Manny Atwal, v-p helicopter programs. But its entrance in the rotary-wing market came in 1967, when it received a contract from the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) to maintain the T63 engines (the military designation for the Rolls-Royce/Allison 250) that powered its fleet of Bell OH-58A Kiowas.

Atwal noted that maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) shops frequently will wade into a new program, first with minor field repairs and slowly adding capabilities. But with the CAF contract, which came alongside Rolls-Royce approval, StandardAero fully jumped into the market. ”We put in a plan to establish full capabilities, and we made it happen,” Atwal said.

That served as a springboard to expand into commercial aviation over the next several years, first offering services to other Bell customers in Canada and eventually into the U.S. and other international destinations for a variety of Rolls-Royce 250 models.

Over the past 50 years, the company has added the capabilities to support the roughly 30 to 40 different applications of the engine as manufacturers continued to introduce new light helicopter variants. Brian Hughes, director of sales and marketing, estimates that StandardAero has worked on at least 30,000 engine equivalents since.

StandardAero’s business now averages MRO services for between 300 to 600 engine equivalents a year. A typical year will involve a customer base from 50 countries, but StandardAero has serviced engines for customers from more than 80 countries.

Hughes noted that as a result, it has captured the top spot in market share for service of the 250 for the past 25 years, and added that customer satisfaction surveys have led to a positive rating of 96 percent.

Atwal and Hughes credit some of this success to programs like the company’s Custom Build Standard and Optimum Build Engine, which involve the development of procedures tailored to the helicopter mission and operating conditions to optimize engine performance.

The helicopter business taps into StandardAero’s engineering resources to be able to develop tailored programs such as those, he said. “StandardAero isn’t just a repair facility. We’re also an engineering group. We’re data driven, and we know if we come up with new solutions we’re going to win business. We make our investment in our engineering group to be able to do that.”

Also relying on its engineering expertise, the company has developed fixes for trouble spots. During last year’s Heli-Expo, StandardAero introduced its new EnduroCoat 3500 coating to extend the life of engine compressor cases on the Rolls-Royce M250. The company so far has delivered more than 300 compressor cases with the new coating, and has had “zero returns,” Atwal said, meaning the product is working as expected.

StandardAero developed the coating amid concerns that compressor cases were encountering issues such as plastic breakout. “Operators weren’t getting the full value, or having unscheduled events” for the cases, he said. “We had our engineering group investigate what was the cause of the failures…and determined the solution was to improve the life of the plastic by applying a coating to it.” With about 6,000 of the affected engines in service, there is quite a large base of potential customers for the coating.

These efforts have helped StandardAero maintain its business through a turbulent helicopter market. “We’ve managed to stay level in what we’ve seen as a downturn,” he said. While oil-and-gas has been a driver of the downturn, and a relatively small part of StandardAero’s business, Atwal said the struggles of the sector have had a ripple effect throughout the industry. The company is optimistic that the business as a whole may strengthen a little, but he added that “it is still early in the year to see that.”

Along with developing new fixes, StandardAero continues to add capabilities, look for new platforms and work to grow internationally. In 2013, the company added capabilities to support the RR300 turboshaft that powers the Robinson R66. The company is further looking at other platforms, but is not yet ready to discuss them, Atwal said.

While already a global company, “we want to continue to build our international marketplace,” he added, pointing to potential in Europe, the Middle East, South America and “certainly China.”

Last fall, the company announced a new agreement that established Chinese partner, Chongqing General Aviation (CQGA) as StandardAero’s first approved service center for Rolls-Royce M250 engine maintenance services in China. Under the agreement, CQGA will have access to the StandardAero support network, engine parts, approved training programs and engineering support for customers operating M250-powered helicopters. “China is starting to open up more and more airspace, and we see rotary aviation taking more and more of a center stage in China,” Atwal said, adding, “We knew it was the right place to go.”

Having said that, he stressed that the U.S. still represents at least half of the company’s helicopter business. “We are going to make sure we’re continuing to support those customers.”

As for its 50th anniversary in rotary aviation, StandardAero will be marking that during Heli-Expo, and will celebrate the milestone with customers this summer.