How much?????
Thread Starter
How much?????
Sikorsky to overhaul tail rotor blades of Army UH-60 Helicopters - Helicopter Newswire
$37.6M to repair 381 tail rotor blades. That's nearly $100,000 to repair each blade!
How much does a new UH-60 tail rotor blade cost?
$37.6M to repair 381 tail rotor blades. That's nearly $100,000 to repair each blade!
How much does a new UH-60 tail rotor blade cost?
Looking at that number I'm wondering if that is, in fact, the price for overhauling a complete set of tail rotor blades rather than just one?
381 sounds like a low number of individual blades considering how many UH-60's the US Army must operate.
381 sounds like a low number of individual blades considering how many UH-60's the US Army must operate.
Quite, and corroborated by the fact that it's unlikely there would be one spare blade hanging around with the other 380! So, under 25K per blade seems like a reasonable figure.
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I've done the overhauls myself, it is quite involved and those Sikorsky parts are expensive. Also remember that there are only 2 tailrotor blade assys on a UH-60, each assy incorporates 2 blades joined by a carbon spar so your actually looking at 762 blades. Add to that spar, abrasion strip or centre plug replacement and the costs mount up.
My first experience with these blades was on a Seahawk back in the late 80's. It was quite a different approach than the TR Blades on my previous fleet helicopter, the Sea Sprite: and it had fewer parts.
Had the chance to see the assembly/production line at the factory some (uh, many?) years ago: it's an impressive bit of engineering and materials application. Layers and layers of composite are light and strong, with an integral pitch horn for each end. The assembly includes the heating blankets for the anti ice and a bunch of other bits and pieces.
Based on some old notes: the price in 2015 for one assembly was $96,152. Probably a few percent higher this FY. That is a full up installable "pair" of blades on one paddle; I'd be interested to read the contract and find out what goes into the price. Shipping, receiving storing, etc? I wonder.
Cedit for this photograph goes to Texas A&M University, Kingsville, TX.
When installed, the two paddles look something like this.
Last edited by Lonewolf_50; 23rd May 2017 at 18:53.
There may also be a spare parts pricing differential.
As with a car, the OEM price for the entire unit is much less than the individual price of all the components involved. That is one reason why it may be sensible to scrap an airframe early, the individual parts are worth more than the whole collectively.
As with a car, the OEM price for the entire unit is much less than the individual price of all the components involved. That is one reason why it may be sensible to scrap an airframe early, the individual parts are worth more than the whole collectively.
(It's in my wife's home town).
