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Keystone Helicopter Corporation was founded in 1953 by Peter Wright, a pioneer of today's modern helicopter industry. Peter Wright completed his flight training at Pensacola Navy Flight School in the late 1930's and served as a U.S.Navy dive bomber pilot. Upon leaving the Navy he joined General Chenault's American Volunteer Group, "the Flying Tigers" and attained the rank of major while serving in China. After World War II , Peter held varied positions in general aviation, which included being a Test Pilot, one of the earliest Trans-at lantic Airline Pilots and sales manager for Frank Piasecki's Helicopter development company. In the early days, Keystone Helicopter was primarily a flight operations organization. Operating such early aircraft as the Bell 47G, Hughes helicopters and Sikorsky S-58T and S-61 Helicopters, Keystone handled very diversified operations such as powerline patrol, mining and petroleum surveys, executive transportation, forest fire fighting ,aerial spraying,tracking high-altitude balloons over Canada, recovering rocket capsules launched by NASA; and supplying the establishment of the DEW (Distant Early Warning) Line in Greenland. Over the years Keystone was always at the cutting edge of the industry. Keystone Helicopter was one of the first Service Centers authorized by Bell and Sikorsky. Keystone operated one of the first twin turbine helicopters in the US , operated one of the earliest turbine overhaul centers and started one of the country's first Air Medical programs . As the business climate changed and new opportunities emerged, Keystone evolved into what is today a modern helicopter support and service company, leading the industry with a solid reputation for quality. The company has one of the largest and most complete maintenance and overhaul facilities for helicopters in the US.