Resource Hub Founded with a focus on heavy-lift helicopter services, the company has expanded to include utility work, cargo transport, firefighting, and military support operations. Based in Howell, Michigan, CHI Aviation turned heads a decade ago when it took over VIH Cougar’s highly competitive contract to provide offshore services in the Gulf of Mexico. The heavy-lift operator has remained a force in the oil-and-gas arena ever since and has also provided support for BP in the Gulf of Mexico and Shell in Alaska and Brunei, in addition to serving other offshore operators. Founded in 1980 as Construction Helicopters Inc., CHI initially focused on local heavy-lift aerial construction services. A new owner purchased the company in 1997, which led to a period of growth into other types of services. The new owner created Heligroup Holdings as a parent company for CHI after purchasing its sister companies Helimax Aviation, an aerial firefighting company, and Resolute ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance). Resolute ISR purchased the Resolute Eagle uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) ISR aircraft from American Aerospace Technologies Inc. (AATI) in 2020. Today, CHI and Helimax work in close tandem, operating Boeing CH-47D Chinook, Sikorsky S-61N, and Bell 505 helicopters in the utility, military cargo and transport, and firefighting sectors. CHI has delivered loads up to 22,000 lb. to remote locations, the top of high-rise buildings, and congested urban areas. The company is certified through the North American Free Trade Agreement to work throughout North America. Military Support A veteran-owned company, CHI is one of the few operators that provides both rotary-wing and fixed-wing expeditionary airlift to the US military, including for some of the most remote and austere areas of the world. Since 2011, the operator has maintained Commercial Airlift Review Board (CARB) approval to support US Department of Defense projects. The company provides a suite of services to military operators, including personnel recovery and casualty evacuation services for US special operations forces, as well as sling load, and cargo and passenger transport, using S-61Ns in the Middle East and North Africa. Helimax Founded in 1995, CHI sister company Helimax performs firefighting operations with CH-47D, S-61N, and Bell 505 helicopters. It also performs complex search-and-rescue (SAR), night-vision goggles, hoist, and helicopter air ambulance missions supporting a wide range of operators. Helimax developed a carbon-fiber airborne suppression technologies tank system (AST Tank), which the company markets as an improvement over a traditional helicopter tank. The AST Tank utilizes a patented spade-door system to create a laminar flow of discharged water or retardant. The design is a second-generation improvement over gated or actuated door drops, where the discharged liquid is disturbed during the drop and is allowed to break up when the column of water enters the aircraft slipstream and dissipates in the vacuum behind the aircraft.
