In April 2012, Australian CASA Register data indicated the helicopter industry was growing at nine percent p.a. At present, the fleet consists of 1,950 helicopters. At this rate, the fleet will be nudging 3,000 in five years.

St. Augustine, Fla. (St. Augustine Record) - Ben McClung and Jose Buezas are capturing aerial shots of golf courses on video, with the use of a small remote-controlled helicopter that weighs all of 15 pounds but might be worth much more than its weight in business.

Reuters - Boeing Co. has won two U.S. Army orders worth $668 million for work on AH-64D Apache Block III helicopters for the U.S. military and Taiwan.

Star-Telegram - With its overseas wars winding down, a flat defense budget and a strong likelihood of a big funding cut come Jan. 1, the U.S. Army - and to a lesser extent the U.S. Marines - are not going to be buying many new helicopters going forward. And the money they do have will be spent keeping the old ones flying a lot longer.

AIN Online - Operators flying some 300 helicopters in India say regulatory issues are stifling an industry that has enormous potential for expansion.

Hoogersmilde, Netherlands (Broadband TV News) - A helicopter from Switzerland will help rebuild the Dutch TV transmitter tower in Hoogersmilde. The 300-metre-high tower collapsed last year after a short blaze.

Corona del Mar, Calif. (Daily Pilot) - For about 30 minutes, many Corona del Mar residents were focused on Upper Buck Gully, watching as a helicopter picked up and moved into place four metal bridges that are part of a new trail project's final components.

Yorkshire, England (Telegraph & Argus) -  The West Yorkshire Police helicopter helped to locate 150 wanted people and vehicles worth more than a quarter of a million pounds in the Bradford district last year. The helicopter clocked up more than 1,200 flying hours in the aerial hunt for wanted criminals, missing people and general evidence-gathering.

Design News - With unmanned aerial vehicles expected to take to the skies alongside piloted crafts, NASA has completed its first test of the Next-Gen air traffic control system in a commercial-sized, unmanned aircraft.

New Jersey's Public Service Electric & Gas will be featured in an episode of America Revealed, scheduled to air Wed., April 25, at 10:00 p.m./ET. The episode features the pilots and repair technicians who perform live-line maintenance on the utility's high voltage transmission lines.

Seeking Alpha - The K-Max unmanned helicopter made its first flight in December of 2011 and is currently being used by the U.S. Marines to move supplies. The K-Max is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Kaman Corp. Unfortunately for these two companies the war in Iraq is over and the war in Afghanistan is ending. So right now, while the product is there, the buyers are not.

New Delhi, India (Hindustan Times) - Bell Helicopter has opened its new office in Delhi. The company has been present in India for nearly 20 years, but the new office, situated at The Grand hotel in Vasant Kunj, will be its first full-fledged "operations office."

NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft with space shuttle Discovery mounted atop will fly approximately 1,500 feet above various parts of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area on Tues., April 17.

Daily Comet - Despite a tough economy and a slowdown in offshore drilling affecting helicopter trips, the Houma-Terrebonne Airport has both grown the region’s economy and experienced its own growth in recent years.

Bloomberg Television reports that easily obtainable GPS jamming devices are up to 1 billion times more powerful than GPS transmissions, blanking out airport landing systems and endangering air traffic navigation.

According to a poll recently released by the Pew Research Center, support for offshore oil drilling has returned to a level not seen since before the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill.

Sixty-five percent of the public supports expanded offshore drilling, the poll says.

Caltrans has launched a website for emergency response pilots to help them find 150 heliport-equipped hospitals across California during medical emergencies. This service will provide a critical link between hospitals and personnel that respond either to daily or large-scale medical emergencies.

Brussels (Reuters) - EU regulators on March 7 authorised France to provide public funds to EADS's helicopter unit Eurocopter and Italy to aid Finmeccanica's Agusta Westland helicopters.

The formal start of the VXX presidential helicopter program has been delayed, as finding an acceptable solution has proved elusive.

The International Helicopter Safety Team has added two new members to its Executive Committee – Bill Chiles, president and chief executive officer of Bristow Group, and Capt. John Steel of the Irish Aviation Authority.

HeliHub - The newly renamed Buffalo General Medical Center has officially opened its helipad atop its roof on High Street. The helipad is located atop the “A” Tower of the Buffalo General Medical Center.

AeroMorning.com - The distinctive sight and sound of Eurocopter’s X3 hybrid helicopter turned heads at last year’s Paris air show, and now the manufacturer plans to make an impact on prospective civil and military users with the demonstrator in the U.S.

EastCoast Radio - Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife in South Africa is confident that helicopters could play a vital role in stamping out rhino poaching.

The Motley Fool - With a 14 percent increase in defense spending last year, Asia is rapidly becoming the target of companies in the aerospace and defense sector. In fact, the region is expected to become one of the largest markets for defense-related choppers worldwide by 2015.

kippsdesanto.com - KippsDeSanto & Co. attended HELI-EXPO, the largest rotary-wing gathering in the world, on February 13 and 14. A key takeaway from the conference and conversations with suppliers is that the rotorcraft market is experiencing a bifurcation in growth and demand similar to what is occurring in the fixed-wing aircraft market.

Defense Industry Daily - In 2006, AgustaWestland received a GBP 1 billion contract from the UK Ministry of Defence for 70 Future Lynx helicopters. The Lynx is an extremely fast helicopter that entered service in the 1970s and has seen several versions and upgrades over the decades.

Aero-News Network, Inc. - Promoted with a fair degree of showmanship, ANN had a ringside seat as Bell Helicopter unveiled the first public view of what they call the world’s first “super-medium” helicopter, the Bell 525 Relentless, early on the opening day of HELI-EXPO 2012 in Dallas, Texas.

Wired.com - Two companies have announced plans to sell remarkably fast and innovative aircraft that bring tilt rotors and pusher helicopters to the civilian sector. AgustaWestland is producing something similar to the V-22 Osprey, while Eurocopter will build a production version of the lightning-quick X3.

The Helicopter Museum at Weston-super-Mare in Somerset has put on display an early turboshaft engine, whose design dates from the 1950s.

Air Racers, a WASP, the first woman aeronautical engineer and one of the first women airplane mechanics for the United States Navy will all soon be inducted into Women in Aviation, International's Pioneer Hall of Fame.

(Australian Aviation) - Australian Aerospace has become the first civil helicopter maintenance training organisation to receive approval under CASA’s revamped safety regulations. The new Part 147 regulations are meant to more closely align Australia’s airworthiness standards with those of other leading aviation nations.

(Digital Journal) - The United States Army is developing helicopter-style drones with vertical take-off ability and carrying 1.8 gigapixel color cameras offering "an unprecedented capability” of ground surveillance."

Jacksonville, Fla. (CNN) - A U.S. Coast Guard unit and 2011 HAI Salute to Excellence award winner that uses armed helicopters to go after maritime drug runners has announced that, working with federal partners, it has intercepted more than $10 billion in illegal drugs and related assets since it was commissioned in 1998.

(BBC News) - The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) plans to build a helipad at Enniskillen police station. Having a helipad in County Fermanagh will mean aircraft can be refuelled without having to return to base.

(Corporate Jet Investor) - Italy is planning to introduce a tax on Italian registered private business jets and helicopters and even on non-Italian registered aircraft that have spent more than 48 consecutive hours on Italian territory.

"Control System for Automatic Circle Flight" was invented by Kenneth E.Builta (Euless, Texas), James E.Harris (Dalworthington Gardens, Texas) and Billy K.Gore (Euless, Texas).

AV Web - The FAA's AeroNav charting division told vendors on Dec. 13 that it proposes to charge end users of digital charting producers approx. $150 a year.

Avionics Intelligence - The Pentagon and the U.S. Army are in the early stages of a far-reaching Science & Technology effort designed to engineer, build and deliver a next-generation helicopter with vastly improved avionics, electronics, range, speed, propulsion, survivability, operating density altitudes and payload capacity.

San Francisco Chronicle - Petroleo Brasilero SA, Latin America's largest company by market value, plans to boost oil production by more than 50 percent over the next four years. To do so, it needs helicopters.

The uncertainty created by Congress’ failure to pass an FAA reauthorization bill is wreaking havoc on the aviation industry and undermining the competitiveness of American aviation maintenance providers.

CNN - Prince Harry has returned to England from military training in the United States. The younger son of Prince Charles spent just over seven weeks in California and Arizona for the final phase of helicopter gunship training.

WLBT-TV - An air medical helicopter pilot who was transporting a burn victim became a patient himself following a bird strike. The pilot made a successful forced landing at Jackson, Mississippi’s Evers International Airport.

The Asian Business Aviation Association announces an energetic turnout at the occasion of the creation of the Hong Kong Operator Committee.

Moundsville, W.V. (The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register) - With many residents voicing concern about damage on Marshall County roadways from drilling truck traffic, Caiman Energy is taking to the sky to alleviate those concerns.