American Helicopter Society (AHS) Annual Forum and Technology Display is the biggest and best vertical flight technology conference in the world. This year, the 68th forum was held in Fort Worth Convention Center, Fort Worth, TX during May 1-3, 2012.

SIMULIA had an exhibit booth at this forum for the first time and it was a great experience. Mike Shubert and Mohan Rathinasabapathy from the North Americas South office along with other SIMULIA colleagues participated as exhibitors on behalf of SIMULIA. With growing interest in composites and SLM in the helicopter industry, it was imperative to have a booth to meet customers and prospects and show how we can help them.

Also, this was an opportunity to meet some of our existing customers such as Sikorsky, UTC and US Army who were presenting papers there.

The most interesting aspect of this conference was the moderated CEO panel discussing “Future Directions for an Industry in a Challenging Budget Environment.” The CEOs of Augusta Westland, Bell Helicopter, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Eurocopter and Sikorsky participated in the discussion and gave their insights about where the helicopter industry is going in the future and how they are coping with the reduced funding from the federal government.

They all agreed that they are going forward with their current R&D plans by investing their own money instead of depending on the federal funding.