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At the recent McKinsey Regional Air Mobility Summit in San Francisco, Bristow’s Dave Stepanek outlined why the helicopter operator has made such a big����to buying urban air mobility (UAM) aircraft that have yet to be certified. As Bristow’s executive v-p and chief transformation officer, Stepanek is responsible not only for sourcing these aircraft but also figuring out how they fit into the company’s far-flung operations in 19 countries.

“We provide regional mobility for the offshore energy business,” he explained.” In addition, Bristow, in business for 75 years, owns an airline—Air North in Australia—and 14 air operator certificates.

“It's our intention to be a leader in innovative and sustainable aviation and to continue our company for another 75 years,” Stepanek said. “To do that, we need to be involved with this new revolutionary technology. Where we fit into the value chain is bringing that evolution of our operational learnings and safety management to this space. I have eight grandchildren. It's important for me that they have an opportunity to have this kind of mobility, and I want to make sure it happens safely, reliably, and efficiently.”

Bristow is taking a crawl, walk, run approach to����and will begin with cargo operations. “We believe that's the proper way for Bristow to move forward,” Stepanek said. “Energy companies are just big logistics companies. They just happen to move oil, so they have to get a lot of stuff to their platforms and rigs, either onshore or offshore, and get a lot of stuff off of it and distribute it. There's a need for air logistics, even onshore, to support those operations. We can leverage our asset base around the world and support this regional mobility.”

Electric Flights Start in Norway

The U.S.-based group isn’t just waiting for eVTOL aircraft to be certified and in August will deploy a Beta Technologies Alia CX300 conventional takeoff and landing electric model to fulfill a����to test zero or near-zero emissions operations. The����is also developing the Alia 250 eVTOL model, which is expected to take longer to certify than the CX300.

“It will be shipped to Europe later this spring,” Stepanek said. “We just posted the first two jobs for commercial electric pilots and engineers in Norway. We received a tremendous amount of interest and we'll be hiring those individuals shortly and starting the training process.”

This testing will be in a “sandbox” environment, with no commercial operations allowed but is intended to resolve questions about electric aircraft operations. These include how pilots are trained, how the aircraft might fit into commercial operations, energy management, battery charging and maintenance, and ground handling.

“It’s a pragmatic approach, crawl, walk, run…electric aircraft in a in a region where you have some constraints around it, but you can operate pseudo-commercial operations and then tell the world how we did it, what happened, and what went wrong," Stepanek explained.��“It's a big learning experience for both the vehicle, the operations, the airspace, airport management, and charging infrastructure. We're doing this for six months. We're gonna fly day, night, IFR, VFR, in hot conditions—well, as hot as it gets in Norway in summer—and through the winter.

Stepanek has done this before, albeit with a conventional helicopter, when Sikorsky’s S-92 flew demonstration flights before it was certified. The Beta Alia will be FAA-registered with a special airworthiness certificate, as was the S-92 at the time. Norway’s civil aviation authority will provide a permit to fly the Alia in the sandbox operations. “We were awarded the contract with an LOI in November 2024 and we signed a definitive agreement [in February]. I just listed a lot of complexities, and we did that in two and a half months,” he said.

For the initial testing, flights will remain near Stavanger then between city pairs, he said, “which means we’ll be flying over water. Then those two phases of the program will generate different flights and longer flights and other conditions.”

Resolving Technical Questions

This effort should generate data to help Bristow understand electric aircraft operations well before entry into service. Stepanek anticipates learning about component reliability and failure modes; plus what it means to operate always at maximum takeoff weight because electric aircraft do not get lighter as energy is used; the impact of repetitive cycles; and battery charging and conditioning.

“I think it's about learning and demonstrating to ourselves that we could take this product and put it into a commercial environment,” he said. “For it to be commercially successful with the ranges and payloads that are available to us, we need to do multiple cycles, multiple landings and takeoffs a day. We know we can do it with helicopters.”

Airliners typically fly a few times a day, but Bristow anticipates six to eight cycles an hour with these new aircraft. “It’s a big change,” he said, “and I think that's maybe the greatest learning for us.”

As for pilot qualifications for this contract, Bristow requires an unrestricted FAA ATP certificate, Norwegian language skills, and a Class I medical. The job is open to qualified pilots, including those who already work for Bristow.��

Preparing for AW609 Tiltrotor

At the same time that Bristow is paving the way for electric aircraft operations, it is also the launch customer for another technologically challenging aircraft, the long-delayed Leonardo AW609 tiltrotor. “We're prepared for them both,” Stepanek said. “I don't know which one's going to be first [to be certified]. I am excited that Leonardo received TIA [type inspection authorization, a step that allows flight testing for certification]. There was a day in my career when I was a Sikorsky salesman and I walked into a flight department for a large Fortune 500 company. They told me that they were going to get to buy a 609, and that was 1999. It's a great product, but it is a different use case and it has a completely different cost structure.”

Electric propulsion involves power management, electric drive trains, and electronic controls. “You eliminate most of the cost drivers of helicopters,” Stepanek said. “With that elimination and even a similar capital acquisition price, your direct operating costs are likely going to be 60% lower, not including the energy. You’re also going to save lots of money on fuel. So you can build a sustainable business, financially and environmentally. It's great for the world, and that's why we're doing it. But it's also great because you can build compelling business models with it.”

Bristow is getting ready for this new business landscape. “That's the key to this Norwegian regulatory sandbox,” he said. “We believe it will provide us the reliable data that allows us to build a sustainable business model that we can underwrite. “We've got all these ideas and concepts and projections but until we get a certified aircraft, we're all just guessing. We can make some pretty good guesses because we've done a lot of this before."

Cargo First, Then Passengers

Cargo flights are expected to be a prelude to Bristow's passenger services. "The energy companies are very keen on this," Stepanek explained. "They like the fact that it lowers the cost and increases safety. I'm not necessarily talking about aviation safety, although that is key, but when you're transporting people and goods on land, it's a lot more dangerous than [flying]. If you can remove a portion of that [risk], there are some interesting [opportunities]. They're also very interested in offshore cargo transportation, either crewed or uncrewed. A lot of the product that they move, it's 200 kilos or less. In the Gulf of Mexico, there are 15,000 people offshore. They need toilet paper and ice cream and all kinds of stuff.”

That said, Stepanek acknowledged that it “will be some time before the energy company aviation teams would allow offshore operations with an eVTOL [aircraft]. They have very sophisticated processes. Energy companies have subject matter experts within their organization that audit and permit contractors to fly to their facilities. It’s above and beyond what you see in normal airworthiness regulations, for good reason. If something goes wrong out there, it's catastrophic.”

Stepanek is excited about these new aircraft. “I've been in helicopters for 40-odd years,” he said. “To be part of a revolution and be a pioneer is an extraordinary opportunity, and we're absolutely embracing it. And it's interesting, people ask why we're doing that. We talk about our leadership and how we want to lead and how we want to sustain Bristow, but it's really core to the fact that we have a strong company with a great balance sheet and have the bandwidth to do this.”

Bristow has previously placed provisional order agreements with several other��, including Electra Aero, Vertical Aerospace and Embraer offshoot Eve Air Mobility.

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