An Online Auction Seeks to Hook Up Private Buyers with Black Hawk Helicopters

Blackhawx has a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter for you. All you need to do is register to bid on this South African online public auction site.

The first Blackhawx online auction ended today and presumably there’s a happy buyer somewhere, soon to take possession of his own ex-military Black Hawk. As of Tuesday afternoon, Blackhawx listed five UH-60s for sale, all mid-1980s vintage aircraft with 5,500 to 7,100 hours total-time. The aircraft all appear to be ex-U.S. Army helicopters, a small sampling of the over 5,000 H-60s produced since the late 1970s.

Blackhawx parent, Johannesburg, South Africa-based marketing firm AOM
AOM
.Digital, claims that the new auction platform is “the world’s first public auction specifically designed for UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters”.

It’s a claim that requires careful parsing – the words “specifically designed for UH-60” being key.

Black Hawks have been available to the public since 2014 through the U.S. Army’s Black Hawk Exchange and Sales Team (BEST) program. As of 2018, nearly 300 surplus UH-60s had been sold to a mix of state agencies, foreign governments and private individuals through BEST.

The helicopters continue to go out the door as the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has approved the exchange and sale of 400-800 obsolete and non-excess H-60 aircraft through 2026.

A quick search turns up several available UH-60s on the GSA’s auction site. If you’re interested, they appear to be attracting bids from $500,000 to $1 million. In 2021, the FAA granted a type certificate to Black Hawk helicopters to operate in the civilian market under FAR 21.25.

Institutional buyers have likely paid somewhere in the ballpark of the prices above. So have wealthy collectors. Anduril Industries founder, Palmer Luckey, bought (and flies) his own UH-60 via the U.S. government auction as has reality TV star and YouTuber, Dave Sparks.

American military surplus equipment companies including Alabama-based Advanced Precision Parts and Connecticut-based Rotair Aerospace also provide Black Hawk parts to the aftermarket, including full airframes. Where Blackhawx figures into this mix is difficult to gauge.

The auction says it intends to serve the same markets – governments, commercial enterprises, private collectors – and that it sources aircraft from current Black Hawk owners (whether governments or corporate owners was not specified). It also gets them from buyers who have obtained the helicopters through the GSA/Army BEST program, likely the larger source.

The South African auction site pledges to hold one online auction per month. Aircraft for sale are listed for registered users seven days prior to each auction, a relatively short window for bidders to access. Nevertheless, the company asserts that the new platform “is a game-changer, creating an open marketplace where operators can browse, bid for or directly purchase Black Hawk helicopters.”

South African marketing executive and AOM.Digital co-founder, Warren Anderson, said in a company release introducing the auction that, “Previously, Black Hawks were not available for purchase by the public. But, in recent months, the US military has been decommissioning their fleet and the opportunity has risen for these machines to be sold to the civilian aviation market.”

As noted above, that’s inaccurate. Anderson told me via an emailed response that his statement, “just means that an alternative private/commercial platform for the public is available other than the GSA. I also believe that our approach will reach a far larger audience because of the fresh approach we are taking.”

That audience is vetted (on the seller side) through a “rigorous due diligence process that confirms the chain of custody and title,” Anderson says. Blackhawx ensures buyers have requisite funds by adhering to its policies and procedures to complete the financial acquisition within three days of the successful bid through Escrow. “We also do our own due diligence,” Anderson adds.

That’s a tall order even for governments. Though aircraft released into the public market through the Army/GSA have been de-militarized, re-converting them for military/para-military use is not out of the question.

With respect to the financial end of such deals, Blackhawx is only an intermediary. According to Anderson, the Buyer/Seller uses approved Escrow services to complete their transaction. The auctioneer does not get involved in any financial aspects. Blackhawx’ co-founder stressed the company’s effort to distance itself from the actual transactions.

“We only act as an auction and marketing platform. We are not the Buyer or Seller. We only provide the actual digital platform. We do not sell or list any weaponized aircraft. The sales process is directly between the Buyer, Seller and third-party Escrow, and they need to follow their regulatory requirements as per their agreements. We do not get involved in the Purchase/Sale transaction at all.”

How easy or difficult it is to maintain such an arms-length in the UH-60 business is a question that’s hard for an outsider to answer. Blackhawx logically takes a commission on each sale, three-percent the company says.

Anderson points out that while the auction is new, it’s not the first rodeo for Blackhawx parent AOM.Digital which he says has extensive experience in the global aviation market in terms of marketing and market intelligence.

“We have extensive knowledge about the various types of aircraft, parts, services, and refurbishments that we market for our clients as well as incredible market insights due to our global footprint. Our clients range from New Zealand, Australia, UK, USA and Canada and South Africa, so we are not merely a marketing agency…”

By design, that knowledge does not extend to where Blackhawx sellers turn over their aircraft to Blackhawx buyers. Such arrangements are subject to the Purchase Agreement and specific terms and conditions between Buyer and Seller the company says.

Whether Blackhawx will emerge as a reliable broker of Black Hawk aftermarket sales is a question only time will answer. But if you simply want to peruse the site’s inventory of UH-60s (Anderson says customers have consigned around 20 Black Hawks for sale over the next few months) all you have to do is register as a buyer.

That includes providing limited information (name, contact number, country, email, username) and agreeing to Blackhawx’ terms and conditions, “which are listed on our website in various locations, including accepting them as a pre-requisite to registering,” Anderson adds.

It’s an attractive daydream. As is so often the case, the reality might not be as alluring.