Air Comm Corporation has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Army to develop a cockpit heater/windshield defroster system for up to 400 OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters, company President Keith Steiner announced today. Total potential contract value for the competitively bid program exceeds $5 million.

The pursuit and award of the OH-58D heater program demonstrates Air Comm’s ongoing commitment to supporting military and government programs, and its track record of success with these important customers. “We are extremely pleased with this contract award,” said Steiner.  “Based on reports from OH-58 units, Air Comm can make a major positive impact for our war fighters by improving the cockpit heat situation in this aircraft.”

As part of the two-phase program, Air Comm will first develop and deliver a prototype system and 35 follow-on systems for operational evaluation this winter.  During the second phase, the company will deliver up to 400 units during a 5-year period.

Field reports of the existing OH-58 heater system indicate that the performance is marginal.  Additionally, and perhaps even more importantly, the noise levels of the existing system interfere with pilot radio communications.

“We’ve been tasked by the Army with accomplishing three objectives,” continued Steiner.  “Drastically improve performance, eliminate the noise problem that they’re experiencing with the existing heater, and reduce weight.  By applying proven technologies from other systems that we have developed, we are totally confident that we can meet all of these requirements.”

The prototype heater system will be developed by Air Comm in coming weeks and installed at Ft. Eustis, Va., with assistance from the Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate and the OH-58 Program Office in Huntsville, Ala.  Air Comm Corporation has also supplied cabin heater and air conditioner systems to Bell Helicopter for the U.S. Army TH-67 program and continues to supply cabin heaters to Sikorsky for the UH-60A, L and M model BLACK HAWKs, and to American Eurocopter for the UH-72 Lakota.

Backed by exceptional engineering and technical capabilities, Air Comm Corp. designs, manufactures, and supports more than 20 heating and air conditioning systems for a range of helicopters, including Agusta, Bell, Eurocopter, MD, and Sikorsky. Additionally, Air Comm has specialized expertise in fluid mass flow analysis, and electro/mechanical system design, development and production. Other capabilities include CNC tube fabrication, wire harness fabrication, circuit breaker/relay/control panel design and production, and engineering services. The company is ISO9000/AS-9100 certified.