Originally Posted by
johni
I guess the market for the HX50 is the private owner who doesn't fly much. Hence the R66 makes no sense as it costs £700,000 and you have to pay a lot (£270,000 ?) for a rebuild after 12 years.
Whereas the HX50 is £500,000 and has no "rebuild clock ticking" as soon as you buy it.
Other options are Hughes 500 (expensive, cramped), Bell 206 (expensive, old), EC120 (expensive, unpowered), AS350 (v expensive)
....which is probably why Hill has so many orders! (that, and the 4 axis AP and glass cockpit)
NEVER going to happen for 500K…. NEVER. (Unless you accept huge losses of course…. I mean, theoretically you can give a helicopter away for free..)