Sierra Nevada Corporation Shows Off its Military Modified Aircraft that Are Ready for Missions

June 9, 2018
Written by Admin TOA
Published in Companies

A local company is taking old aircraft and giving them a Rocket City upgrade on the cutting edge. The Sierra Nevada Corporation is giving an inside look of what it's been working on and how it will help with military missions. SNC moved to the Huntsville Executive Airport about a year and half ago. They've been very busy modifying aircraft that are bought through a government program.

The aircraft have been transformed. "It is a UH-60 helicopter that is an alpha model, one of the older versions. We take that Black Hawk and then we put it through a process actually re-manufacturing a new helicopter," said Bill Morris, Sierra Nevada Corporation VP of Business Development.

The aircraft are now on the market to be used in military missions.

"The Sierra Force helicopter is capable of doing several missions, troop transports being one, cargo re-supply, aerial insertion, aerial medevac and logistic support," explained Morris.

What makes the Sierra Force unique is the state-of-the-art digital cockpit, it improves situational awareness and reduces pilot workload.

"This particular display is compliant, so in 2020 all aircrafts will have to be compliant to fly in the national airspace under the FAA next gen concept," Morris continued.

Other modifications to the aircraft include improvement to speed, climb rates and endurance. "Instead of 30 minutes, now this aircraft can stay on station for eight hours and provide our ground troops with surveillance that they need to insure that they can conduct smooth operations," he said.

The SNC Scorpion special mission aircraft provides border security.

"This takes multiple collection items, multiple cameras and sensors and able to provide our international customers with a similar capability to do intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance,” said Morris.