Chopper2004: That is unfortunate news. Makes me wonder what is still in production at Kaman?
It is fascinating to see the K-Max fly and its rotors intermesh when they are so close together.
Originally Posted by
Cyclic Hotline
Out of 60 K-Max's produced, 16 have crashed and been written off - that's 27% of the fleet! While admittedly this is a small production run that subsequently skews the numbers, I can't actually think of any aviation product of any kind that has suffered an attrition rate as high as this?...
Well Cyclic, treadigraph shared interesting stat for A-12 / SR-71 losses at 38.3% combined, but then look at the Luftwaffe's fleet of F-104's. According to Wikipedia: "
The Germans lost 292 of 916 aircraft and 116 pilots from 1961 to 1989, its high accident rate earning it the nickname "the Widowmaker" from the German public". That is a 31.9% loss rate during that period for this far larger fleet.
Would be informative to find out how many of the K-Max accidents were due to some sort of mechanical issues as opposed to those due to other causes given higher risk ops they are probably often conducting (low level, sling loads, firefighting).