Minuteman Aviation Inc.

Minuteman Aviation Inc., doing business as Glacier Heli Tours, operates as a prime contractor delivering Type II and Type III helicopter flight services for wildland fire suppression, prescribed burn operations, search and rescue, emergency response, and natural resource monitoring to federal land management and Interior agencies across the western United States as a small business without subcontractor involvement.

Minuteman Aviation is a for-profit Subchapter S corporation headquartered in Missoula, Montana, registered in the federal contracting system since 1999. The vendor competes across multiple vehicle types — most work flows through full-and-open delivery orders on several large parent IDIQs rather than through set-aside vehicles, though the vendor holds seats on two total small business set-aside IDIQs with the Department of the Interior. The company operates exclusively as a prime contractor (100% of awards) with no subcontractor relationships, maintaining its own helicopter fleet and flight crews across dispersed operational bases.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted toward the Department of Agriculture Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management National Interagency Fire Center, which accounts for 160 awards (26% of total prime awards) and $253.9 million of combined potential value (66% of the total). The Department of the Interior's Departmental Offices (Interior Business Center and Office of Policy Management and Budget) collectively represent the second-largest customer tier at $102.4 million in combined potential value across 16 awards. The top five customers by potential value account for approximately 94% of all identified potential value. Across the trailing five-year award history, annual volume has remained in the 26–53 award range, with 2023 marking peak activity at 53 awards before declining to 26 awards in 2026 year-to-date.

Minuteman Aviation places task orders under five primary parent vehicles. The largest by task order volume is the On-Call Type III Helicopter Flight Services 2022–2027, a Department of the Interior total small business set-aside IDIQ with a $49.5 million ceiling, under which the vendor has issued 46 task orders. The Helicopter Support Services – Type 2 vehicle, a U.S. Forest Service multiple-award IDIQ running through December 2033 with a $50 million ceiling, carries 33 task orders with combined potential value of $9.2 million. The Type 3 Helicopter Support Services 2023–2032, another National Interagency Fire Center vehicle with a $50 million ceiling through December 2032, anchors a separate stream of work. The vendor also holds a single-award Indefinite Delivery Contract with a $400 thousand ceiling for Type III helicopter services supporting the Lolo National Forest and a single-award $3.5 million contract that has been extended through April 2026 for fire and aviation management support.

Representative work includes a $5.38 million exclusive-use Type II helicopter delivery order for Libby, Montana (January 2024 through December 2028, National Interagency Fire Center), a $3.7 million Type III helicopter services delivery order for operations at Abingdon, Virginia and Challis, Idaho (January 2024 through December 2028), a $2.49 million Type III helicopter services delivery order for Wise River, Montana (May 2024 through December 2028), and a $1.76 million exclusive-use Type 2 EU helicopter delivery order for Missoula, Montana (May 2022 through October 2022). Task orders on the Lolo National Forest and surrounding areas have generated delivery orders ranging from $0 (placeholder ceiling values) to $449 thousand for prescribed burn and wildfire suppression support.

Service Contract Inventory captures $3.9 million in SCI-reported invoiced revenue from six federal service contracts in FY2022, with approximately 6.6 FTEs delivered that year. Government-paid hourly rates on those contracts ranged from a median of $234.15/hr to a 90th percentile of $316.97/hr, consistent with specialized aviation personnel and crew labor on wildland fire and emergency response missions. The vendor operates without named subcontractors; across SCI-reported prime contracts, zero percent of hours were performed by subcontractors, confirming the self-perform delivery model documented across contract summaries. FY2023 through FY2025 SCI records show zero invoiced revenue and zero FTEs, indicating either contract transitions between fiscal-year reporting periods or a shift in contract structure that moved work outside the SCI reporting threshold.

With nineteen awards facing ultimate completion dates within the next twenty-four months and combined potential value of $656 thousand, recompete exposure is modest relative to the vendor's active portfolio. The vendor's long tenure on Forest Service and Interior IDIQs, coupled with consistent annual task order volume and multi-year exclusive-use arrangements, positions it as an established aviation support provider for federal land management and emergency response missions concentrated in Montana and the broader western United States.