Newly Minted Kodiak Carries Ventilators to California

Daher's Kodiak Aircraft unit in Sandpoint, Idaho, donated use of a brand-new—and not-yet-painted—Kodiak 100 Series II turboprop single, as well as a company pilot, last week to deliver 240 ventilators to Sacramento, California, for the Department of Public Health’s Emergency Preparedness Office.

The ventilators were manufactured by Idaho-based Percussionaire.

“Daher has the same culture of helping people as Percussionaire, and we recognized the importance of making the airlift resources available for this life-saving equipment,” said Nicolas Chabbert, senior v-p of the Daher Aircraft division.

“We needed to get ventilators to California as quickly as possible, and we found that using Daher aircraft would be the quickest possible way,” added Percussionaire president and CEO Mark Baillie.

Percussionaire adapted its TXP 5 high-frequency percussive ventilator system for hospital use with Covid-19 patients. The technology previously had been used for portable units during the Desert Storm Gulf War, according to Daher.