Vietnam Helicopters (VNH), formally the Vietnam Helicopter Corporation (), also known by its military designation Corps 18 (), is a transportation business owned by the Vietnam Ministry of National Defense. It operates helicopters to transport cargo, train pilots and export/import devices in the aviation industry. It also offers tourist transportation.

History

The Company was founded on April 20, 1979. The first flight squad of the Vietnam Air Force for oil and gas services was set up on September 13, 1983. In March 1985, Helicopter Vietnam was established. In 1989, the Service Flight Corporation of Vietnam was established by the Vietnamese Government with Northern Service Flight Company and Southern Service Flight Company as subsidiaries. In 2007, the Service Flight Corporation of Vietnam expanded with a new subsidiary, Hai Au Company, in addition to Northern Service Flight Company as well as Southern Service Flight Company. It has one joint venture, Bien Hoa Helicopters, a maintenance and repair company. In 2010, Service Flight Corporation of Vietnam was renamed the Vietnam Helicopter Corporation.

Operations

VNH operates a fleet of 28 aircraft with the ability to carry from 4 to 24 passengers .

Petroleum exploration

VNH is the first company in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

to provide aviation transport for employees in the oil and gas industry in

. Over three decades, VNH has provided aviation transport services for more than 30 companies, including

Vietsovpetro Vietsovpetro, headquartered in Vung Tau, Vietnam, is a joint Russian-Vietnamese enterprise for oil and gas exploration. According to the VNR500 (Top 500) ranking, Vietsovpetro is Vietnam's 8th largest company. It was established in 1981 under ...

Premier Oil Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

Petronas Petroliam Nasional Berhad (National Petroleum Limited), commonly known as Petronas, is a Malaysian oil and gas company. Established in 1974 and wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with all oil and gas reso ...

, BP and

Chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * '' Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock ...

Charter flights

VNH flies 50+ routes to destinations such as Hạ Long, Cat Bi,

Móng Cái Móng Cái () is a city of Quảng Ninh Province in northern Vietnam. Located on China–Vietnam border, it sits on the southern bank of Beilun River across Dongxing city of China's Guangxi Autonomous Region. It has a population of about 103,000 ...

Lào Cai Lào Cai () is a city in the Northwest region of Vietnam. It is the capital of Lào Cai Province. The city borders Bảo Thắng District, Bát Xát District, Sa Pa and the city of Hekou Yao Autonomous County, in Yunnan province of southwes ...

Sa Pa Sa Pa (, also written as Sapa) is a district-level town of Lào Cai Province in the Northwest region of Vietnam. As of 2018, the town had a population of 61,498. The town covers an area of 677 km2. The town capital lies at Sa Pa. It is one ...

, Hòa Bình,

Thanh Hóa Thanh Hóa () is the capital of Thanh Hóa Province. The city is situated in the east of the province on the Ma River (Sông Mã), about 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Hanoi and 1560 kilometers (969 miles) north of Ho Chi Minh City. Thanh ...

Vinh Vinh () is the biggest city and economic and cultural center of north-central Vietnam. Vinh is the capital of Nghệ An Province, and is a key point in the East–West economic corridor linking Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. The city is ...

Huế Huế () is the capital of Thừa Thiên Huế province in central Vietnam and was the capital of Đàng Trong from 1738 to 1775 and of Vietnam during the Nguyễn dynasty from 1802 to 1945. The city served as the old Imperial City and admi ...

Da Nang Nang or DanangSee also Danang Dragons ( ; vi, Đà Nẵng, ) is a class-1 municipality and the fifth-largest city in Vietnam by municipal population. It lies on the coast of the East Sea of Vietnam at the mouth of the Hàn River, and is one ...

Vũng Tàu Vũng Tàu (''Hanoi accent:'' , ''Saigon accent:'' ) is the largest city of Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province in southern Vietnam. The city area is , consists of 13 urban wards and one commune of Long Sơn Islet. Vũng Tàu was the capital of the pr ...

, Côn Đảo,

Cà Mau Cà Mau () is a city in southern Vietnam. It is the capital of Cà Mau Province, a province in the Mekong Delta region, in the southernmost part of Vietnam's inland territory. The city is characterised by its system of transport canals, and m ...

and

Phú Quốc Phú Quốc () is the largest island in Vietnam. Phú Quốc and nearby islands, along with the distant Thổ Chu Islands, are part of Kiên Giang Province as Phú Quốc City, the island has a total area of and a permanent population of appro ...

Pilot training

VNH Training Center is

Ministry of Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

-certified as a training center. It trains pilots, ground services staff, aviation engineering staff, and pilots on its modern group of aircraft including the EC225, Super Puma AS-322 L2,

EC155 B1 The Eurocopter EC155 (now Airbus Helicopters H155) is a long-range medium-lift passenger transport helicopter developed by Eurocopter from its Dauphin family for civil aviation use. It is a twin-engined aircraft and can carry up to 13 passenger ...

, Mi-172, and the Mi-17-1V.The VNH Training Center has trained its own staff along with the

Vietnam People's Air Force The Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF, ), formally refers itself as the Air Defence - Air Force (ADAF, ) or the Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF, ), is the Air force, aerial warfare service branch of Vietnam. It is the successor of the former North V ...

, and the

Vietnam People's Navy The Vietnam People's Navy (VPN; vi, Hải quân nhân dân Việt Nam), or the Naval Service (), also known as the Vietnamese People's Navy or simply Vietnam/Vietnamese Navy (), is the naval branch of the Vietnam People's Army and is responsi ...

. Trainers themselves were trained by helicopter companies in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Missing in Action program

The MIA program started as flights to search for missing Americans following the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. The MIA program was established between the United States and the VNH on 18 April 1990. VNH has flown more than 100 searches throughout Vietnam, including many over dangerous regions and in hazardous weather conditions. These actions contributed to the normalization of

United States–Vietnam relations After a 20-year hiatus of severed ties, then-U.S. President Bill Clinton announced the formal normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States of America and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on July 11, 1995. Subsequent to Presi ...

Aeronautical engineering services

The aeronautical engineering centers of VNH: Northern Vietnam Helicopter Company, Southern Service Flight Company and Helicopter Technical Services Corporation (Helitechco) are licensed by the AMO aircraft maintenance organization of Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam. Helitechco is the only engineering center in Asia that has been ratified by the MIL Institute to maintain Russian-made Mi-type aircraft. More than 200 CAAV certificatied-staff are undergoing training at universities and colleges in domestic and international aviation. Engineers and technical staff attend courses in the operation and maintenance for helicopters in Russia and France as well as planes including the EC225, Super Puma AS-322 L2,

, Mi-172 and Mi-17-1V. Helitechco and aeronautical engineering centers of VNH can: *Overhaul Mi-type of plane with technical maintenance for 500 hours *Technical maintenance for more than 2200 hours for the EC225, Super Puma AS-322 L2 and

. *Accessory maintenance for Eurocopter and Mi planes

Other services

* Tourism, aerial photography, cargo sling; MEDEVAC, search and rescue * Subcontracting operations services, pilots and mechanics for other helicopter owners * National security and defense * General businesses: office and warehouse leasing; supply and transportation of aviation fuel; forwarding logistics services

Leaders

* General director: Hà Tiến Dũng * Political commissar: Vi Công Dũng * Vice general director: Kiều Đặng Hùng * Vice general director: Trần Đình Nam

Fleet

Eurocopter EC225 The Airbus Helicopters H225 (previously Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma) is a long-range passenger transport helicopter developed by Eurocopter as the next generation of the civilian Super Puma family. It is a twin-engined aircraft and can carry up ...

* Eurocopter AS332 L2 Super Puma * AugustaWestland AW189 * Eurocopter EC155 B1 *

Mi-172 The Mil Mi-17 ( NATO reporting name: Hip) is a Soviet-designed Russian military helicopter family introduced in 1975 (Mi-8M), continuing in production at two factories, in Kazan and Ulan-Ude. It is known as the Mi-8M series in Russian servic ...

* Mi-17-1V *

Cabri G2 The Guimbal Cabri G2 is a two-seat light helicopter produced by Hélicoptères Guimbal, and powered by a reciprocating engine. Designed by Bruno Guimbal, a former Eurocopter engineer, it had its origins in the 1980s, and the first demonstrator ...

* Eurocopter EC130T2 *

Bell 505 Jet Ranger X The Bell 505 Jet Ranger X (JRX) is an American/Canadian light helicopter developed and manufactured by Bell Helicopter. The Bell 505 was unveiled at the 2013 Paris Airshow in June 2013 as the Bell SLS (Short Light Single). The Bell 505 designa ...

Subsidiaries

* Northern Vietnam Helicopter Company * Central Vietnam Helicopter Company *

Southern Vietnam Helicopter Company Southern Vietnam Helicopter Company (VNH South), also known as Southern Service Flight Company (SSFC), is a state-owned chartered airline in Vietnam, which provides helicopter flights to various purposes, namely oil platform service, search and res ...

Achievements

* January 31, 1989: First flight to the Dan Queen oil rig of Bow Valley Energy ''(

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

)'' of flight crew UH1A * 1985: Flight contract with

* 1989: Initial oil company service * 1992:

MIA Mia, MIA, or M.I.A. may refer to: Music Artists * M.I.A. (rapper) (born 1975), English rapper and singer * M.I.A. (band), 1980s punk rock band from Orange County, California * MIA., a German rock/pop band formed in 1997 * Mia (singer) (born 1983) ...

program * 1994: Shareholder of Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank * 1997: Becomes leader of the Vietnam helicopter services market * 1999:

President of Vietnam The president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Chủ tịch nước Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam, lit=Chairman of the nation of Socialist Republic of Vietnam) is the head of state of Vietnam, elected by the Vietnam Nat ...

issues Third

Military Exploit Order The Military Exploit Order ( vi, Huân chương quân công) shall be conferred or posthumously conferred on individuals who have recorded outstanding and brave exploits in combat, combat service, training, force building, consolidation of the all ...

enabling training for foreign pilots * 2000: Supply planes, pilots and mechanics for oil services in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

* 2005: Transfer from

Ministry of Defense (Vietnam) The Ministry of National Defence ( vi, Bộ Quốc phòng, abbreviated as MoD for ''Ministry of Defence'' in English language, English or BQP for ''Bộ Quốc phòng'' in Vietnamese language, Vietnamese) is the governmental ministry of the Viet ...

* 2009:

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

give the title Hero of Labor * 2014:

issues second

References

External links

Official website of Vietnam Helicopter Corporation
* * {{Airlines of Vietnam Airlines of Vietnam Helicopter airlines Vietnamese companies established in 1979 Airlines established in 1979