Originally Posted by
Northernstar
Nobody will know until the government have rammed it down the crews necks and the back or neck injury claims start coming in. The only 139's out there with similarly positioned weapons restrict crew to inside but I would view window size the same.
Interesting point re a 50 year old type in the Blackhawk. Surely that is not an issue given sales backlog in USA, and comparing F15, C130 and CH47 all selling whilst being as old or older. Is it a bad thing?
....and younger than the F-16 ;-)
Generally age is not an issue with a chopper unless you have some 'lifed' carbon composite components in the airframe.
As the Black Hawk and Chinook are proving on a daily basis - a purpose-built, proven military design, with updated avionics, DAS etc has so much more to offer the operator - including benefits of 'economies of scale' and supportability with similar types in the field.