Rogerson Aircraft Lands Contract for $150 Million

Rogerson Aircraft, a helicopter components manufacturer, has won a $150-million contract from Bell Helicopter that will boost the company’s revenue by more than 30% a year for the next nine years.

The pact, to be announced today at the Helicopter Assn. International trade show in Anaheim, calls for Rogerson’s avionics division in Pasadena to build microprocessor-based displays for Bell’s commercial twin-engine helicopters.

An avionics display is the instrument panel of a helicopter, fitted with instruments that feed the pilot information about the craft’s navigational and mechanical status.

Rogerson pioneered the use of microprocessor technology to build so-called self-contained avionics display systems in which all of the equipment is built into a single compact unit.

Company founder Michael Rogerson said the Bell contract is the largest ever for the 21-year-old firm, which now garners about $35 million a year in sales.

He said he expects to hire about 25 new workers at the Rogerson Kratos Aircraft division in Pasadena over the next two years, swelling the payroll there to 160. Annual sales for the company should exceed $50 million for the life of the contract, he said.

Altogether, Rogerson employs 300 people now, including 90 at its headquarters and equipment division in Irvine and 75 in its European operations.