A Coulson-Unical Blackhawk, UH-60A, was photographed at Sacramento McClellan Airport August 14, 2019 by Mike McKeig.As we reported in March, Coulson Aviation is partnering with Unical Air, a new unit of the Unical Group of Companies, to create a heavy lift helicopter joint venture company that will build and operate Boeing CH-47 and Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk aircraft for aerial firefighting and other markets.
At the HAI Heli-Expo in Atlanta, March 5, 2019, Britt Coulson explained that they intended to install internal tanks in both models of helicopters. In the last few weeks the new partnership has been working to get their first aircraft of the joint venture carded, the company said in a Facebook post August 12, when they posted the photo below:
Coulson photo posted August 12, 2019.The camo paint job reminds me of Air Spray’s T-170. We’ll have to see if this makes it less visible to other aircraft when flying low and slow over a fire.
Air tanker 170 at MCC March 12, 2018. Photo by Bill Gabbert.The livery on the Coulson-Unical helicopter is very different from their Blackhawk that was on display in Atlanta.
Coulson-Unical CU-47 and CU-60 in Atlanta March 5, 2019. Photo by Bill Gabbert.
The engineering design for the water/retardant delivery system on the Coulson-Unical CU-60. Coulson image.In the video below, Mr. Coulson describes the new Chinook and Blackhawk program they are undertaking with Unical. It was filmed at the HAI Heli-Expo in Atlanta, March 5, 2019.
6 Comments
Camo is designed to blend the shape into the surroundings… Exactly the opposite of what Aerial fire fighters are looking for.
I wonder what the Army tail number of this helicopter was. I’ve worked at Ft. Rucker for almost 20 years and a number of the UH-60s that were in use in the training fleet there were sold in the Blackhawk Sales and Exchange Team (BEST) program(mostly EH-60As). Always curious to see where the aircraft I’ve worked on over the years have ended up.
Dan, it looks like it was 80-23507
Bill,
Well we had 80-23500, so pretty close! If memory serves 3500 was turned into a maintenance trainer, it was going to cost too much to replace the hydraulic deck plating so the airframe got condemned. Lot of hours on that one. Of course now we have some UH-60A to L conversions with 15,000 plus hours total time, but they look brand new.
Dan
Camo ?
Not well thought out.
That aircraft was painted in 2016 after a PMI, it was intended to be a show bird not a fire bird by any means.
Comments are closed for this article!