Today, helicopters play an essential role in our lives;
But, the manufacturing, operation and maintenance of existing helicopters is needlessly costly
Imagine if the following constraints could be reduced in a meaningful way!
•Very complex engineering relative to size and payload capacity;
•High maintenance costs per hour flown;
•Difficult to fly and maneuver in autorotation – high training costs and lack of common flight deck;
•High downtime for maintenance - required by relatively short MTBO (life limited parts);
•Poor safety record - high fatalities for hours flown;
•Restrictive operating environment - e.g. twin engines required over populated areas in Europe;
•High manufacturing costs - due to complexity of systems and assembly;
•Significant environmental footprint - noise, high fuel burn and “heavy” manufacturing.
