News
DART approvals for basket improvements
December 13, 2018 By Helicopters Staff
DART Aerospace of Hawkesbury, Ontario, received STC approval from TCCA, FAA and EASA for the newest additions to its AS350/AS355 Quick Release Heli-Utility-Basket.
DART received initial certification of a utility basket on the AS350 aircraft back in 1994. The most notable addition to the new basket from its predecessor, explains the company, is an oversized, curve-top lid, which adds 30 per cent more storage space.
This new lid is available as a retrofit option for long baskets using the light or heavy-duty flat lid. Other additions to the utility basket include an optional ground-handling wheel for maneuvering and double-locking quick-release pins, also available for retrofit.
As with the previous generations, DART explains the new basket carries no VNE restriction. A new flight test program has allowed DART to relax performance restrictions on all DART AS350 baskets. The company also points to how the basket can be quickly installed or removed with no tools by one person in less than a minute, based on its quick-release system.
“The impetus for this design change was to allow customers to transport rigid based, multi-drop firefighting buckets, but we are excited about the benefits that the added cargo volume this new lid will present to operators in the heli skiing, public service, utility and firefighting industries,” said Wesley Reid, product manager at DART.
