Commercial and military demand for special-use platforms has created a growing worldwide aircraft conversion business. Used fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters are being reconfigured from traditional passenger and cargo transport roles and retrofitted with updated systems for use in firefighting, law enforcement, electronic surveillance and intelligence gathering, aerial refueling, search and rescue and medical evacuation and transport roles, among others.

Using its own Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering System (AMOS), Swiss regional Crossair was able to handle rapid growth in fleet and operations with a proportionally smaller increase in engineering and maintenance manpower.

While flight simulator maintenance and cockpit maintenance share avionics service as a key element, the similarity stops there.

Helipro is in final assembly of an offshore-use version of its S-61 Short conversion following strong expressions of interest from oil-support operators.

In an about-face, France's Snecma is preparing to acquire Societe Europeenne de Propulsion (SEP), abandoning its plan to sell its stake in noncore affiliates and subsidiaries such as SEP, Messier-Bugatti and Hispano-Suiza.