mid lackluster sales and costly new certification requirements, Sikorsky is no longer accepting orders for the S-76D, effectively shutting down the 45-year-old medium helicopter program.At the same time, Sikorsky is evaluating potential partnerships to set up license production overseas. Announcing the move at the Helicopter Association International’s Heli-Expo 2022 in Dallas, Jason Lambert, Sikorsky vice president for Global Military and Commercial Systems, said, “We’re currently assessing partnerships with international companies to continue the legacy of the aircraft platform.
“Although we currently have in production in Oswego, New York, one VIP and two search-and-rescues configured as S-76Ds, we’re not currently taking orders for new S-76Ds at this time,” Lambert said. “With that though, we remain committed to our customers and operators through our aftermarket and sustainment services.”
While describing the S-76D as a “phenomenal performer in a niche market,” Lambert said the aircraft has not stood up to the competition as well as the company hoped. In addition, he noted that “we received a ruling from the FAA that essentially said that any aircraft that had a certificate of airworthiness applied after April 2020 had to have a crashworthy fuel tank system. Now the 76’s safety record is incredibly strong. We’ve got over 800 aircraft out there that have been delivered. But the business case to put a crashworthy fuel system on that particular aircraft, frankly, with the demand we were seeing, didn’t justify the investment.”
Lambert added high manufacturing and supply-chain costs associated with the S-76D also were key factors. “It’s a hard product for us to build and deliver profitably,” he said. “With that, we still see a future in the platform. We know there’s global customer demand for the platform, and so we’re talking to international partners about licensing opportunities where we would license IP and we would provide technical assistance and support for the international party to do the production and manufacturing.”
The S-76 first flew in 1977 and entered service in 1979. More than 800 have been sold across several variants, the latest of which was the reengined S-76D. Deliveries started in 2013, although sales never matched expectations, the company said. “I don’t think we . . . can say we achieved what we desired with the strategy we set out for the S-76D,” Lambert explained.
https://aviationweek.com/business-av...uction-partner