VAI Member Spotlight is a free service that VAI provides its small-business members to help increase their visibility. If your company would like to be considered for a VAI Member Spotlight, please sign up here. Not a member? Join VAI and start enjoying the many benefits our members receive! VAI Member Spotlight: Air Center Helicopters, Texas, USA Airbus H225 operator provides helicopter support for a wide range of applications, including astronaut recovery. By Jen Boyer When US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronauts Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Nick Hague, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, splashed down in the Gulf of America (also known as the Gulf of Mexico) on Mar. 18, 2025, Air Center Helicopters provided their next flight—a ride from the recovery boat in an Airbus H225 LP Super Puma. The widely followed return of Williams and Wilmore, whose stay on the International Space Station became extended after Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was grounded for technical issues, was all in a day’s work for Air Center Helicopters. The heavy-lift operator holds contracts with both Boeing and SpaceX for astronaut recovery. For water recoveries involving SpaceX aircraft, Air Center Helicopters flies NASA and SpaceX crew members to the recovery boat, as well as transporting them from the ship to dry land. For Boeing landings, which take place at one of four landing sites in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, the helicopter transports them back to civilization. “We’ll take them to the hospital if they need it, or on to a NASA location,” explains Matt Lowe, Air Center’s director of special missions. Once the NASA astronauts and Roscosmos cosmonaut were on their way home, Air Center Helicopters repositioned for its next adventure—recovering the crew of Fram2, who orbited the Earth from pole to pole before splashing down off the coast of California in early April 2025. Retrieving space explorers is only one of Air Center Helicopter’s many contracts. Based in Burleson, Texas, the company currently operates 23 Airbus H225s all over the world. For more than 30 years, the company has provided air support needs for a diverse range of operators, including US and international governments, as well as to institutional and commercial operators. Military Support One of the company’s larger contracts involves replenishing vertical lift assets for the US Navy. Air Center has four detachments of two helicopters based on aircraft carriers in the Pacific Ocean and in the Middle East. The aircraft, which have foldable rotors to facilitate easy storage, move cargo between supply ships and the carrier groups. In particular, the H225 is the only aircraft that can move a certain piece of cargo. “It’s the only aircraft on the carrier that can lift the 9,600-lb. F-35 Joint Strike Fighter engine off a supply ship to the carrier,” Lowe explains. “It has helped significantly in all four of the Navy detachments with that task.” Special Missions Air Center Helicopter has also worked with United States Africa Command and military special operations forces on personnel recovery missions. These missions include transporting personnel out of the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, during a period of unrest and supporting the National Science Foundation’s research in Antarctica. The aircraft, which can carry six litters and an additional 10 ambulatory people, have also supported patient transportation following natural disasters, including in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in 2024 and Hurricane Dorian in 2019. With all that Air Center Helicopters does around the world, the company continues to prioritize nurturing future talent, including offering internships for high school students. “We need as many aviation nuts as we can [get],” Lowe says with a laugh. Jen Boyer is a journalist and marketing communicator specializing in aviation. She holds commercial, instrument, flight instructor, and instrument instructor ratings in helicopters and a private rating in airplanes.
