Aerial Application

Aerial application with a helicopter began in British Columbia in the summer of 1947. Three ex-RCAF officers, pilots Carl Agar and Barney Bent, and engineer Alf Stringer, were operating a fixed-wing charter company, Okanagan Air Services Ltd., out of Penticton. In July 1947 they raised enough money to purchase the world’s first production helicopter, a Bell 47-B3, which they used for crop spraying throughout the Okanagan Valley.

Fifty-five years later, in 2002, Black Hawk Helicopters was created.  We started out the same way as Okanagan, using helicopters to provide aerial application services for customers involved in forestry, agriculture, and pasture.

There have been some big changes in technology since 1947. We use state of the art GPS swath guidance systems, installed in modern Robinson R44 Raven II helicopters. What has not changed is that the helicopter remains the very best tool for accurate aerial dispersal operations.