Helowriter wrote:
The MD500/M530/600 series share the OH-6 lineage. At least a few of
those have been sold commercially since the MDHI split. MDHI sold some
MDExplorers to the Mexican Navy, and some paramilitary versions in
Europe. The rotor system on the MELB was developed for the commercial
MD530F. That's the point - the civil and military markets and
technologies are complementary.

The Europeans didn't just buy militarized versions of civil aircraft to
improve their balance sheet. They developed dual-use aircraft to fill
their requirements from a domestic source. With a full product line,
Eurocopter can sell military or commercial as the markets shift. No, I
don't expect a commercial Tiger derivative, but giving Australia a
commercial helicopter assembly factory helped get that country to buy
the Tiger.

Technology development in military and civil helicopters is
interdependent. Rotor, transmission, HUMS, and other advancess carry
over from one market to the other. The flaw tolerance in the
commercial S-92 makes a very safe, crashworthy military helicopter (The
VXX competition chose to ignore that.) Commercial innovations -- HUMS,
on-condition maintenance -- can cut O&S costs for military operators.


Light helicopers have no future? Boeing abandoned the product line it
now needs to compete for a sizeable US Army order. It may have also
pushed itself out of the LUH contest. Tell me how that was smart
business.

HW

Monday morning quarterbacking is easy. Again, at the time that Boeing
divested itself of the commercial business there was no market for the
aircraft, it was losing money (a lot of money) and was in a distant
third place to Bell and Sikorsky with no hope of catching up.

You're assuming that Boeing is going to win the ARH. What if it doesn't
and they've already bought back MDHI? Boeing is in the same boat that it
was in when it first dumped the enterprise. No market, unsustainable
sales and heavy negative cashflow. Selling "some" Explorers to the
Mexican Navy every few years isn't going to keep the business viable.

A few months ago the conditions at MDHI were so bad that the mechanics
were taking their toolboxes home with them every night because they
didn't know if the doors would be chained shut when they came in the
next morning. Their only hope for the future is if Boeing wins the ARH.
If Bell wins - bye, bye MDHI.

The vast majority of rotary wing innovations are military shifted over
to civil. Not the other way around. A civilian aircraft doesn't have to
be built to continue to operate after taking a half-dozen 7.62mm rounds
through major wire bundles. Having a crashworthy civilian airframe is
nice - having an airframe that's difficult to bring down is even better.
The civilian market is for inexpensive aircraft that can be operated and
maintained at a profit - not an aircraft that has to be rugged enough to
handle abusive and hostile treatment. A couple of civilian innovations
that can be migrated over to military (with modification) is hardly a
reason to continue to pour cash into a limited opportunity.

HUMS was based on military innovations like LIMMSS. On-condition
maintenance is great as long as you have a regular flying schedule with
plenty of logistics support handy. In any case, those are support
technologies - you don't have to be in the business of building
helicopters to develop support technologies for them.

If Boeing hadn't sold the commercial side and ARH hadn't come along
you'd be criticizing them for making a bad business decision for holding
onto a losing proposition. It comes down to a basic question of business
- how much of your profitable operation do you sacrifice to shore up a
money pit, on the off chance that someday it may get better?

MD did that for years with its commercial aircraft business and it came
close to sinking the whole company. The end result was that it got
bought out by Boeing.

A lot of stars had to line up in order to get to the situation that
we're in today - the sudden cancellation of Commanche, a MELB based on a
highly modified existing civil airframe and the Army's insistence that
its next scout helicopter be based on an existing civil airframe as a
result. That's a lot to hope for when you're holding a money-losing
civilian helicopter operation that has a bleak future ahead of it
otherwise.

Vygg