Editor's Letter

This has been an unusually high profile time for helicopters. On the one hand, the recession has led to a drop in corporate, commercial and training flights, on the other, there was the wedding of the British Prince William and his wife Catherine Middleton. Prince William, as the press continually remind us, has a ‘day job’ as a SAR pilot. Then you have the use of helicopters in Japan, attempting to cool the nuclear reactors after the earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Nuclear Plant. This was followed by the dry weather over the UK leading to massive fires and, somewhat surprisingly, a lot of helicopters used for dousing the fires: while you expect to see this in the USA and Australia, it is rare in Great Britain. Then, most high profile of all, there was the use of the US Navy Seals helicopters in Pakistan to find Osama bin Laden and the question: What were these special helicopters that were able to slip undetected over the Pakistan border and into Abbottabad, north of Islamabad, without arousing.....