NC Forest Service Becomes First Operator of Multimission Kodiak 100

The agency took delivery of the turboprop on Wednesday at the Airborne Public Safety Association’s annual convention in Orlando, Florida.

“As North Carolina’s motto is ‘First in Flight,’ it’s extremely appropriate that the state’s forest service is the initial operator of this latest upgrade for the Kodiak 100,” said Nicolas Chabbert, senior vice president of Daher’s Aircraft Division.

According to Daher, the NCFS will utilize its Kodiak 100 as a “load aircraft" to carry "equipment and supplies to operational locations in support of aerial tankers in the wildfire suppression role."

The Kodiak 100 was designed to be a multimission workhorse, capable of applications that range from wildfire suppression, the monitoring of national resources and the protection of public safety to humanitarian services and surveillance and reconnaissance duties.

The Daher Kodiak 100 is the first to be delivered with the composite five-blade propeller configuration from Hartzell Propeller. Created for use on the Kodiak 100, the new design incorporates Hartzell’s lightweight Raptor propeller hub technology. According to Hartzell, the entire unit weighs 13 pounds, which is less than the Kodiak 100’s current four-blade metal propeller. This reduces the aircraft’s takeoff roll by 6 percent at maximum gross weight. The propeller time and warranty between overhaul is 4,000 hours or six years.

“We welcome the Kodiak 100 to the family of aircraft equipped with our five-blade composite propeller, joining Daher’s Kodiak 900 and the TBM 960,” said Hartzell president JJ Frigge. “Hartzell has been producing composite blades since 1978, which are made with a structural carbon fiber that offers superior strength, damage resistance, and reparability.”

The five-blade composite propeller features a durable nickel-cobalt leading edge, a nickel erosion screen for foreign object damage protection, urethane paint for improved erosion protection, and the use of aerospace-grade carbon fiber.

The propeller diameter of 96 inches gives it a ground clearance of 16.4 inches, retaining the Kodiak 100’s ability to operate from unimproved strips.

Paul Carelli, director of Kodiak flight operations and special missions, noted that of the more than 320 Kodiak 100s delivered to date, more than 90 are in service with multimission operators, logging an estimated 28,500 flight hours annually.

“With its enormous useful load, off-airport capabilities, and simple and rugged design, the Kodiak 100 is ideal for such a broad range of applications,” Carelli said. “In addition to the performance improvement with Hartzell’s five-blade composite propeller, the aircraft is extremely quiet."

The new propeller is also quieter than the four-bladed models, turning at 2,000 rpm for maximum torque—which is 200 rpm slower than the current four-blade metal propeller.

According to the company, this slower rotation speed reduces vibration aboard the aircraft and lowers the Kodiak 100’s flyover noise below the European Union Aviation Safety Agency’s stringent 78 decibels. According to a decibel comparison chart from Electrical World, that’s about the same volume as a washing machine.