Helicopter manufacturer Helicopter manufacturer Helicopter manufacturers belong to the broader category of aerospace manufacturers. It is useful to think of helicopter manufacturers as falling into two categories, those that can design, certify and manufacture new helicopter designs from scratch and those that can only manufacture extant designs under license. Boeing Vertol is an example of the first type and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, who license-produced Boeing Vertol designs for much of its recent history, is an example of the second type. The peace dividend at the end of the Cold War and the increased cost of developing new helicopters has seen a consolidation
1994 Scotland RAF Chinook crash 1994 Scotland RAF Chinook crash The 1994 Mull of Kintyre RAF Chinook crash occurred on 2 June 1994 at about 18:00 hours when a Royal Air Force (RAF) Chinook helicopter (serial number "ZD576", callsign "F4J40") crashed on the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland. The crash, which occurred during thick foggy conditions, resulted in the deaths of all twenty-five passengers and four crew on board. Among the passengers were almost all the United Kingdom's senior Northern Ireland intelligence experts. The accident holds the distinction of being the worst peacetime disaster to have been suffered by the RAF. In 1995, an RAF board