Restricted
I need to embellish what I initially said in this post below. Sikorsky will be happy to sell you a brand new S70i but it comes with NO type certificate. Therefore you can only operate it if you are a public agency. So I should not have stated that the S70 comes as restricted. There was some talk that they might obtain a restricted certificate for it and there were some earlier S70s that were under a restricted certificate that was serial number specific and does not cover the new S70s.
All of the Black Hawk variants ( including the newly manufactured S70i that may be purchased directly from Sikorsky) that are ex-military aircraft are in the restricted category. Some countries do not allow restricted category operations. Restricted category aircraft cannot be operated outside the US without the written permission of the country in which you wish to operate. To say that the companies that have been granted type certificates are now the manufacturer bears the need for some explanation of that statement. We all know the US military and the original manufacturer hold the engineering data for these aircraft. Some of these type certificate holders have the engineering capability to always be on top of the aging process and some may not. Getting the TC is not too difficult, witness how many have done that, but providing years of after purchase support and product improvment may be the test. Talk to Sikorsky and ask how they view their role, if they even have one, in providing any sort of support for these aircraft. I think it is a good thjng that this is being done and am all in favor of ex military ships gettjng various levels of refurbishment and going into the civil world but be aware of who you are crawing into bed with for long term support.
Last edited by roscoe1; 18th Aug 2019 at 21:13.