Coulson Aviation USA, a member of the Coulson Group, and Unical Air, a new unit of the Unical Group of Companies, have joined forces to create a heavy lift helicopter joint venture company that will build and operate Boeing CH-47 and Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk aircraft for aerial firefighting and other markets.

The joint venture will leverage Coulson’s unmatched strengths in aerial firefighting and night fire suppression with Unical’s industry leading supply chain, MRO, CRO capabilities to fight forest fires in the USA, Australia, and around the world.

Together, Coulson and Unical are well along in the design and modification of the UH-60A and the CH-47D to install Coulson’s proprietary RADS tanks, respectively, as well as to add other unique capabilities such as night-vision, IFR navigation and hover filling. The modified UH-60A and CH-47, which will be type certified and FAA approved, are to be known as the “CU-60©” and the “CU-47©”. Both aircraft will enable Coulson Unical to offer world class Helitanker firefighting performance at competitive pricing.

The SMART Delivery System Controller technology in these systems will allow for automated target drops for our night vision goggle firefighting program and will have the capability to adjust flow rates based on speed and altitude, providing ground crews the same options as our fixed wing air tankers.

“This partnership with Unical Aviation is the future of aerial firefighting, combining the best of both companies as we introduce the CU-60© and CU-47© Next Gen Helitankers,” stated CEO, Wayne Coulson, Coulson Aviation, “The foundation of our company was built on the premise of offering the customer better value, which both of these aircraft types will provide.”

Han Tan, CEO of Unical Aviation stated “We wanted to partner our fleet of UH-60’s and CH-47’s with the best, most innovative aerial firefighting outfit we could find. Coulson was the clear choice, and we’re delighted to be teaming with them.”

Britton Coulson, VP of Coulson Aviation added, “Both the CU-60© with the new RADS-M, and the CU-47© with the new RADS-L, will be based on our proven and highly desirable C-130 RADS-XXL and B737 RADS-XXL/2 systems. All Coulson RADS series of tanks have a common touch screen SMART Delivery System Controller with proprietary technology that’s far superior to anything else on the market. We pride ourselves on OEM Style integrations that modify the airframe in the least intrusive way possible while achieving the optimal design and performance for the mission.”

Coulson Unical are targeting to launch operations for the 2019 fire season in North America.