Quick Take: United Tech Illustrates a Point

Yesterday, we discussed the lack of news (which actually counted as good news) at United Technologies (NYSE: UTX  ) . Specifically, we noted the company's confident assertions that: (1) growth abroad would offset any weakness here in the U.S. in its Carrier cooling-and-heating business; and (2) its Sikorsky helicopters would do just fine even in the face of a slowdown in defense spending, because it's now getting fully 40% of its revenue from civilian buyers.

No sooner had these words left COO Louis Chenevert's mouth than United Tech (UTC) issued a press release supporting the latter point. On Wednesday, the firm announced that Bristow Group (NYSE: BRS  ) was buying seven helicopters from UTC subsidiary Sikorsky -- four S-92s and a trio of S-76C++s, for use in shuttling oil workers from shore to offshore drilling platforms. It provides these services to oil majors such as Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A  ) (NYSE: RDS-B  ) and BP (NYSE: BP  ) .

As oil majors have to move further and further afield in search of dwindling oilfields, moving workers to worksites and back looks like a growth industry not just for firms like Bristow and fellow flier CHC Helicopter (NYSE: FLI  ) , but for Sikorsky/UTC as well. (Incidentally, Sikorsky/UTC also counts CHC as a customer.)