Is Alees coming to an end, too?

[Derek]

I just saw something on Facebook about Alees closing their doors soon. Has anyone else heard about this?

If this is true, that would really be a shame. They make a gorgeous helicopter.

[murankar]

It sounds like alees USA and the parent company are splliting ways. According to a chat stream on rchn a team pilot said that the designer maybe starting a new company. So we will see what happens.

[pvolcko]

They put out some nice stuff. I won't be surprised to see a couple of consolidations (mergers or going out of biz) this year. Heli interest seems to have dropped off a bit (quad fever has hit big time). SAB has chewed up a great deal of heli market share. Align will probably make a bit of a comeback in the entry-mid market with Blade out of the mix and remain the go-to heli maker for lower cost, decent quality large stuff. But I think these smaller efforts are at risk if they don't scale properly and find ways to make ends meet through the fall off in interest.

[murankar]

When your in a small market and nirriw that down even smaller by producing only one size heli, what do you think can happen. Alees could have done better by producing some alternate kits, 500, 550/600 or maybe even a 360/380. Expansion probably could have saved them.