They're used to herd reindeer in Finland and to thwart bank robbers in Brazil, but the most colorful thing about Robinson helicopters may be the green of the dollar -- the "little" manufacturer in Torrance, CA notched sales of more than $100 million last year as it delivered 390 new aircraft and remanufactured 55 more.

With a North American market share of some 65% in terms of total helicopter units, Robinson Helicopter can rightly claim to have the most popular birds in the sky. Priorities this year include a new building at Robinson's Torrance Airport factory that will expand floor space by about half, to 400,000 square feet, and, perhaps, a modification of the flagship R44, an aircraft introduced in 1995, to make it more capable at higher altitudes.

"We would like to have one that would be a good ship up in the mountains too," says company founder and president Frank Robinson. He, incidentally, was last year named an Aviation Legend by Aviation Week & Space Technology for his role in furthering piston aircraft, a market area once said to be dying. "I'm not much on projections," Robinson comments.

One thing certain is that Robinson is sold out for this first quarter, during which the company will build six four-seat R44s and four two-seat R22s per week. All the Robinson helos are powered by Lycoming engines, with 180-hp 0-360s in the R22s and 260-hp 0-540s in the R44s. Other key components, including rotor blades and gearboxes, are built in-house.

Robinson acknowledges that the banner year 2000 was due in part to pent-up demand satisfied by R44 hydraulic controls that became available in the fall of '99. Matching the delivery tally of 390 new aircraft (126 R22s and 264 R44s) is "probably going to be pretty hard to do," he says. But that's where being privately held has its advantages. "Our priorities are entirely different," Robinson says. Rather than pay dividends, he can put money into new equipment or R&D-like development of a high-altitude R44.

Outside of the U.S., where Robinson makes about two thirds of its sales, the company last year opened a sales office in St. Petersburg, Russia. It continues to work Asian markets too, including Thailand, the Philippines, and China.