Originally Posted by
JohnDixson
Back to the RSRA for a moment ( then a comment re Comanche teaming ).
As to the Boeing/ SA teaming on Comanche. I can only address the flight test aspects and in that regard, the teaming worked well. The Flight test Team leader was a Boeing man of long experience, Clarence Hutchinson, and he was really excellent. In fact, after consulting with our CEO, I/we offered him a job, which he turned down for a number of personal reasons. That test team worked to produce perhaps the best flying machine the vertical flight industry has seen* ( only flew it once, and it was very, very impressive ). I’m talking about the basic helicopter. In the present, cannot comment on the Defiant, as I am not remotely involved.
*Were there development problems to solve? Of course-there always are, and some are more easily solved that others, but as to aircraft problems, they were addressed and resolved.
The complaint I’ve always heard was not Boeing’s individual engineers and their contributions, but rather how their program managers assigned to the teams managed risk, schedule, mitigations, etc.