A friend invited me to attend the Helicopter Association International Expo in Orlando last weekend. What a show. It was like Emmy's for helicopters. Free beer, football fields of helicopters, female models, stage displays with 3D videos, seminars, lots to do. I got to see the Sikorsky X2 prototype and the EuroCopter X3 proto in 3D. Kid in a candy store. There was a Evergreen Skycrane, Bell 407s, tons of military birds, vendors galore.

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(Flying, 3/11/11) More than 20,000 rotorcraft aficionados descended on Orlando, Florida, for this year's Heli-Expo, held at the Orange County Convention Center from March 6 to 8. Helicopter manufacturers unveiled several new models at the show and offered special pricing that for many apparently was too enticing to let pass. Eurocopter kicked things off with the introduction of the new EC145T2, notable for featuring a fenestron, Turbomeca Arriel 2E engines that provide 25 percent more power, and upgraded avionics. Also new were the Model 407GX and 407AH variants that Bell Helicopter unveiled on the show's opening day. The Bell 407GX features a Garmin G1000H cockpit with synthetic-vision technology while the 407AH is a commercially available armed helicopter targeted primarily at the export market.