Originally Posted by
aa777888
it would take a clean sheet of paper to make them competitive. Dump the pistons, concentrate on a successor to the 480B. Lose the grease gun and nitrogen bottle, add some real luggage space and 4 conventional seating positions, and add hydraulics. Keep the rotorhead and blade system, obviously, since that's the crown jewel of their engineering portfolio. Add a pilot operable blade fold kit so it can fit in the same space as the competition. Keep the flat floor of the 505, the high level of standard interior finish of the R66, and the superior full fuel payload and range of the R66. Avoid anything inelegant like the 505 tail weights.
While easy to say, the reality of a clean-sheet, certified helicopter is much more complicated.
The time, effort and money required is immense, that's before you consider re-tooling, re-certifying people etc.
Without volume or defense funding, it is beyond the grasp of a small business.
Even Robinson won't clean-sheet an aircraft, it's cheaper and more practical to live with the flaws and evolve it - they at least have a market.
In engineering you can't polish a turd, you can only cover it with glitter.
Enstrom were stuck in a narrowing niche, in a struggling industry, with neither the funds nor vision to change.
There will be further contraction in the rotary market, it is unavoidable.