Brantly Helicopter

Brantly International

Industry	Manufacturer
Founded	1945
Headquarters	Coppell, Texas
Key people	Cheng Shenzong (President)
Products	Helicopters
Number of employees	20
Website	www.brantly.com

Brantly International Inc. is a helicopter company with its engineering and administrative offices based Coppell, Texas, United States. Manufacturing of Brantly-designed helicopters is now carried out by Qingdao Haili Helicopters of China.

The company started out 1945 as Brantly Helicopter Corporation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded by Newby O. Brantly. Brantly was so impressed with the Sikorsky VS-300 that he decided to design his own helicopter. In 1946 his first helicopter, the Brantly B-1 with coaxial rotors made its first flight. The B-1 was not put into production.

Using lessons learned from the B-1, he decided to build a two-seater with a simple rotor design. This helicopter, the Brantly B-2, made its first flight 1953. In 1957 the company moved to Frederick, Oklahoma, where the B-2 was certified in 1959. He later designed the Brantly 305, a five-seater which made its first flight 1964. It was certified by the FAA in 1965, the same year it entered production.

Lear Jet acquired the Brantly Helicopter Corporation in 1966; at this time the 180,000 sq ft (17,000 m²) factory in Frederick, Oklahoma had 100 employees. The factory moved to Wichita, Kansas in 1969. Aeronautical Research & Development Corporation (ARDC) bought all the rights to Brantly helicopters from Lear Jet in 1969, but they ended operations in early 1970.

In 1972, the rights were acquired as Brantly Operators Inc. by Michael K. Hynes. He renamed the company in 1975 as Brantly-Hynes Helicopter Inc. Later that year, the Franklin Capital Corp, headed by F. Lee Bailey who also owned Enstrom Helicopter Corporation at that time, purchased the company. Brantly-Hynes originally were just providing product support but later placed the B-2 and 305 back into production.