Minuteman Aviation Inc.

Minuteman Aviation Inc., doing business as Glacier Heli Tours, operates as a prime contractor providing on-call Type II and Type III helicopter flight services to federal land management and emergency response agencies, competing predominantly in full-and-open procurements with no set-aside designations characterizing recent activity. The company is a for-profit subchapter S corporation based in Missoula, Montana, registered in the federal system since 1999, with primary NAICS framing in nonscheduled chartered passenger air transportation (206 awards) and nonscheduled chartered freight air transportation (181 awards), though its contract language centers explicitly on wildland fire management, emergency response, infrastructure maintenance, and natural resource monitoring.

The vendor's concrete capability portfolio spans helicopter flight operations across Type 1, 2, and 3 aircraft for wildland fire suppression, prescribed burn operations, aerial firefighting, cargo sling work, search and rescue, personnel transport, and reconnaissance. Recent representative contracts include a $70,476.60 delivery order from the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management for prescribed burn operations in Lewistown, Montana (June 2026), a $2.39 million delivery order from the National Interagency Fire Center for Type 3 helicopter operations at Wise River, Montana (May 2024 through December 2028), a $5.65 million exclusive-use Type II helicopter delivery order supporting Libby, Montana operations (January 2024 through December 2028), and a $3.7 million Type 3 delivery order covering operations in Virginia, Kentucky, and Idaho (January 2024 through December 2028). The vendor delivers these services entirely as a prime contractor (100% of recent awards); no sub-award activity appears in the source.

Customer concentration is severe and driven by a single agency pair: the Department of Agriculture Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management National Interagency Fire Center accounts for 148 awards (25% of the 600-award portfolio) valued at $252.7 million (66% of $382.2 million combined potential value), while the Department of the Interior Departmental Offices accounts for 16 awards valued at $102.4 million (27% of combined potential). The National Park Service Intermountain Region adds 61 awards valued at $632 thousand. Together, these three customer groups represent 68% of award count and 94% of potential dollar value. This concentration reflects the vendor's specialization in federal wildland fire and land management missions, but creates recompete exposure: 20 awards valued at $611 thousand reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months.

The vendor holds significant parent vehicle positions. The On-Call Type III Helicopter Flight Services 2022-2027 vehicle (Department of the Interior, $49.5 million ceiling, multiple-award, total small business set-aside) carries 45 task orders valued at $744 thousand. The Helicopter Support Services - Type 2 contract (U.S. Forest Service, $50 million ceiling, multiple-award, no set-aside, running through December 2033) anchors the portfolio with numerous delivery orders. The Type 3 Helicopter Support Services 2023-2032 vehicle (National Interagency Fire Center, $50 million ceiling, multiple-award, no set-aside, through December 2032) carries comparable order activity. Minuteman also holds single-award IDVs: a $3.5 million Type III helicopter contract for the Lolo National Forest (Forest Service, total small business set-aside, through April 2026), a $2.5 million Type 2 Equivalent helicopter contract (Forest Service, total small business set-aside, October 2022), and a legacy $3.5 million contract for exclusive-use operations in Kentucky and Montana (Forest Service, total small business set-aside, through April 2023).

Activity trajectory shows a decline from historical peaks: 48 awards in 2022, 53 in 2023, 32 in 2024, 31 in 2025, and 13 in the first six months of 2026. This drop reflects the maturation of multi-year delivery orders under large parent vehicles rather than award volume increases—the $2.39 million Wise River and $5.65 million Libby exclusive-use contracts (both 2024 awards) represent long-term commitments that reduce new task order issuance. Combined potential value across all 600 awards stands at $382.2 million, with $117.4 million obligated to date (31% liquidation).

Service Contract Inventory data captures a narrow slice of the vendor's federal services footprint: six FY2022 prime records representing 6.6 FTEs and $3.9 million in invoiced federal service revenue, with zero invoicing reported in FY2023 and FY2024, suggesting either the absence of reportable service contracts above the $150,000 SCI threshold in those fiscal years or a reporting lag. Government-paid rates on those SCI-reportable service contracts ranged from a 10th percentile of $227.19/hr to a median of $234.15/hr and a 90th percentile of $316.97/hr. The vendor operates its own delivery teams with zero subcontractor hour-sharing on the six SCI-captured prime contracts, consistent with its self-perform model across the award footprint.

Minuteman Aviation competes as a standalone prime with no named teaming relationships in the source, delivering helicopter assets and crew as needed across dispersed federal agencies. The company's federal footprint centers on the western United States (Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado-adjacent regions) with satellite operations extending to Kentucky and Virginia to support multi-state emergency response missions. All work is performed on firm fixed-price delivery orders under existing parent IDVCs, with task order values typically ranging from $5,000 to $2.4 million depending on mission scope and duration.