Enstrom Helicopter Corporation joined forces with its South African representative Safomar Holdings to showcase its helicopter solutions at the Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) exhibition, where it displayed a recently delivered Zambia Air Force Enstrom 480B helicopter.
Safomar offered a centralised chalet to facilitate visits with military and law enforcement representatives from throughout the African continent, affording Enstrom and its products plenty of attention, the company said in a statement following the 18-22 September exhibition.
Safomar was instrumental in coordinating with the Zambian Ministry of Defence last year, finalising the sale of two 480B turbine helicopters to the Zambia Air Force (ZAF), which Enstrom personally delivered in March 2024. The ZAF flew down one of their new 480Bs to AAD 2024 for static display.
Enstrom President Todd Tetzlaff was among the group who made the trip to Air Force Base Waterkloof in Pretoria for AAD 2024. He said, “As a first-time attendee, I was thoroughly impressed with the massive turnout and the diversity of products on display. It reinforced the fact that Africa is experiencing much economic growth, requiring the need for increased vertical lift capacity.”
“We were proud to showcase our helicopter and share the good news direct from the factory in Menominee,” said Tetzlaff. “We were also able to reconnect with the ZAF pilots who we’d grown quite close with during their time training.”
Enstrom will be back on the international stage next month with Global Defence Helicopter 2024. The event is scheduled to return to Warsaw, Poland, between 22 and 24 October with more than 700 representatives from 50 NATO and friendly nations attending.
Safomar previously assisted in the sale of three Enstrom 480B helicopters to Botswana’s police service – the last of these was delivered in early 2021.
Safomar operates a large regional maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility as well as a flight school, and both maintains and operates Enstrom helicopters throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
