Aerial Operator Héli-Béarn Becomes First French Customer To Receive A Daher Kodiak 100 Turboprop

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Officials from French aerial work operator Héli-Béarn recently took delivery of the first Daher-manufactured Kodiak 100 aircraft delivered to France. Héli-Béarn will use the single-engine turboprop to drop parachutists. (Photo courtesy of Daher.)

Aerial work operator Héli-Béarn recently became the first French customer to receive a Kodiak 100 utility turboprop plane from Daher. Also based in France, the family-owned Daher manufactures Kodiak 100s out of its facility in Sandpoint, Idaho, USA. It produces TBM aircraft from its plant in Tarbes, France. Héli-Béarn operates at France’s Pau-Pyrénées (Pyrénées Atlantique) airport and will use its new Kodiak 100 to make parachutist drops. The operator’s fleet also includes TBM 700 and Cirrus SR22 planes and Airbus helicopters.

Chutes Away

Daher began manufacturing Kodiak 100s in 2018 after purchasing former owner Quest Aircraft that year. The single-engine, high-wing Kodiak 100 Series II is the latest Kodiak 100 model. It features a decade’s worth of innovations and enhancements over the original Kodak 100. Nicolas Chabbert, Daher Aircraft division director and Kodiak Aircraft managing director, says the Kodiak has been lesser known outside North America and Asia to date, but “with this first delivery of a Kodiak to a French customer, we hope to change the situation.”

Héli-Béarn Director Jean-Luc Dartiailh says as an aerial work operator, the company was interested in using the Kodiak as soon as it learned Daher purchased Quest Aircraft. Héli-Béarn’s Kodiak 100 features a sliding door and benches that can seat 15 parachutists. The turboprop can climb to 12,000 feet (3,600 meters) in 9 minutes, 30 seconds, enabling it to average four parachute rotations per hour, Daher says.

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Source: Daher