Skywheels Founder Jim McCutchen

12/04/20 • 18 min

(December 7, 2020) Jim McCutchen began manufacturing McCutchen Skywheels rotor blades in 1985. Following a successful run until 2001, his company manufactured 6,000 rotor blades. To put that into perspective, if you placed the rotor blades end-to-end, they would stretch 17-miles long. That's a lot of rotor blades. During his time of ownership, Jim did considerable research and testing. Our podcast begins with an update from Skywheels President Joe Covelli. Joe details his goal in bringing Skywheels back on the market and manufactured again to match the original McCutchen Skywheels rotor blades for their safety and performance characteristics. The goal was met in the summer and fall of 2020 during test flights by two pilots who confirmed the new rotor blade sets had the same flight performance characteristics as the originals.

Previous Episode

Meet Air Command’s New Owner

(March 13, 2018) In September 2017, Harold Smith sold Air Command International to Joe Covelli. The company specializes in manufacturing gyroplane rotorcraft sold worldwide as build-to-fly kits. As part of the transaction, the company’s headquarters, to include operations and manufacturing, were moved to River Falls, Wisconsin (near Minneapolis, Minnesota). Harold, an aeronautical engineer, and his son Doug successfully operated Air Command from the airport in Caddo Mills, Texas for nearly 25 years. According to Joe, “We look forward to continuing the great tradition of Air Command in manufacturing production gyroplane kits, parts, and accessories for customers worldwide”. Currently, there are over 2,500 Air Command single and two-seat gyroplanes flying worldwide. The company’s first flight was in 1984. The website is www.aircommand.com.

Next Episode

Skywheels Test Pilot Greg Bradley

(December 22, 2020) In September, Skywheels Rotor Systems completed flight tests. Test pilot Greg Bradley put the new blades through their paces and goes over flight maneuvers and data acquired. Receive firsthand information about new rotor blade performance and flight characteristics.