Robinson CEO David Smith is in the UK this week, and was Guest of Honour at a customer event hosted by Sloane Helicopters at Sywell. Sloane brought together around 120 customers and suppliers for the event, which was hosted in the fabulous “Hangar One” venue – which itself dates back to the very early days of Sloane 50+ years of history at the airfield.

In an interview with HeliHub.com, Smith said that he wanted to meet with as many customers, pilots and engineers of Robinson helicopters so he can fully understand what their challenges are. It is clear that he is keen to make any changes that are needed to improve the customer service provided by the company.

Smith admitted that Robinson has sometimes been too quiet and reserved, and he wanted to move the company to be more active and visible. From the early days of the R22, and with past interviews HeliHub.com has had with both Frank and Kurt Robinson, it has always been clear that the founders shunned marketing as an unnecessary expense.

As the original designer, Frank believed that the engineering aspects of each model would ensure they sold without any marketing effort. While the production totals to date of 14,200 across the R22, R44 and R66 lines, it would be difficult to dispute that. However, Smith is confident that his new approach will be more than paid for in increased sales, and it will be interesting to see the numbers when GAMA publishes its annual statistics early in 2025.

In his presentation, David Smith both provided an update on changes to benefit Robinson helicopter owners, including extending the life of R44 blades and the early expectation of EASA and UK CAA approval for the new empennage design on each model. The FAA certified the R66 empennage in September 2023 and the equivalent paperwork for the R44 and R22 followed in February and April of this year.

What’s next? Smith did not shy away from confidently looking ahead at new models either. Although he would not be drawn on timescales, it seems a fair bet that Robinson will launch a larger turbine helicopter – perhaps targeting the Bell 407 market, at Verticon 2025 in Dallas in March. He is considering a twin turbine helicopter.

L-R – George George (Managing Director, Sloane Helicopters), David Smith (CEO Robinson), David George (Chairman and Founder, Sloane Helicopters)