Arnold Zwicky's Blog

(After three weeks in the grip of infections, both viral and bacterial, some potentially life-threatening, I’m limping back to life and my blog, with a return, both sentimental and high-tech, to the ancestral home of the Zwickys, the village of Mollis, Canton Glarus, Switzerland.)

I’ll lead with a photo of impossibly picturesque Mollis in the summertime, when it’s green:

(#1)

Some basic facts from Wikipedia:

Mollis is a former municipality in the canton of Glarus in Switzerland. Effective from 1 January 2011, Mollis is part of the municipality of Glarus Nord. [For ordinary people, of course, Mollis continues to be a place — tiny but significant.]

… The municipality is located on the right side of the Linth valley. It includes the area from the Linth Canal and Walensee to the [Linth river]

… Mollis had a population (as of 2010) of 3,337.

It lies at an elevation of 433 m (1,421 ft) — not very high, but it’s surrounded, as you can see, by high mountains.

The immediate neighborhood, in a Google map that focuses on the location of the Marenco helicopter company (more to come below), but includes Mollis and its airport (Flugplatz Mollis):

(#2) The lake is the Walensee

That’s very close up. A much bigger picture, from the Greater Zurich Area site:

(#3) The GZA as a commercial and cultural zone in the modern world — with Mollis highlighted because of its role in the helicopter business

On the site, the story: “Mollis in the canton of Glarus to become the international center of excellence for helicopters” by Christian Zender on 6/6/16:

Last April the Swiss center of excellence for helicopters was founded by the Glarus location development authority together with the heads of the Swiss Aerospace Cluster, as well as Marenco Swisshelicopter AG, Europoles Suisse GmbH and the municipality of Glarus Nord.

The former Mollis airfield in the canton of Glarus is to become an international hub for the construction and operation of helicopters. The Mollis helicopter center of excellence will be part of the existing Swiss Aerospace Cluster industry association.

Switzerland is traditionally home to many helicopter companies as a result of its mountainous terrain [and a Swiss tradition of engineering excellence]. The country’s helicopter sector consequently boasts exceptional expertise and is internationally renowned. However the helicopter industry still faces major challenges due to constantly changing regulations, high production costs in Switzerland and other issues that are in need of improvement. Helicopter companies are now seeking to strengthen the industry as a whole through promoting a united public image and exchange within the helicopter center of excellence. They aim to organize cooperations for sales promotion and support for product development. Thanks to this specialist group, Swiss helicopter expertise will be bundled, enhanced and positioned on the international stage.

The SKYe SH09 produced by Marenco already provides a good example of Switzerland’s excellence in the helicopter sector.

(#4) From the Marenco homepage about the helicopter: “Positioned in the 2.5 metric ton class, the SH09 helicopter is designed to stand out from the competition. It offers outstanding hot and high performance and a low noise signature from the newly developed dynamic assembly and shrouded tail-rotor.”

The first Swiss-made helicopter will be manufactured in Mollis GL. The SKYe is a 2.5-ton lightweight multipurpose helicopter and is among the most modern in the world. We are convinced that the specialist group’s efforts will continue to make the Glarus Nord location more attractive and that new companies will move here to be part of this innovative environment.

Village quaintness plus Swiss-whiz engineering.

This entry was posted on January 16, 2019 at 5:38 pm and is filed under Switzerland and Swiss things, Zwickys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.