Originally Posted by
Hughes500
Bellringer
I am afraid you are caught up in the big con from manufacturers . Give you an example of a pressure switch, i know it is made by a local company that sells it to a well known OEM, It is a switch that has no aviation certification until it is given a piece of paper by OEM. Switch sold to OEM for 2000 euros, cost to you and me with a piece of paper 20000 euros ! My next door neighbour used to make RR 250 compressor wheels, cost £ 180 to make I will let you tell me what RR charge for them . I wouldnt mind what goes on in aviation but really ....... one of my pilots used to be a chief auditor for Jaguar Landrover, he was horrified when he came to aviation, his comment was what a joke , no manufacturer would last 10 minutes in the quality of the product compared to automotive ( and that is from Jag Landrover !!!!) here is an example he pulled out. HTC main rotor blades, an issue on debonding of blade from the grip, aviation cure AD check the blade every 200 tq events. Automotive would recall every blade and replace and then immediately, change and improve the process otherwise sued for millions and customers would go else where.
Not these anecdotes again.
Last time I checked automotive did not have components of the same severity and complexity of your example main rotor blade, or the same stringent qualification & certification requirements to satisfy.
Said qualification & certification for the above mentioned main rotor blade can and will consume many millions in engineering costs over several years, a cost to be fronted by the business and recovered from subsequent sales (sales likely being in the range of hundreds at best, compared to the vast quantity of automotive orders). To be blunt the costs you repeatedly quote would not cover the raw material or its treatments.
To "recall immediately, change and improve the process" potentially voiding any current qualification & certification activity, or at best initiating a partial repeat is not as simple as you suggest, remind me how long did Boeing park the Max whilst they changed some code in the software? I'm not saying manufacturers couldn't do better, but simply trying to justify some of the reluctance or delay to make improvements.
Slight thread drift but while on the subject of the much more efficient automotive industry I genuinely only received in 2022 a recall notice for an airbag fault discovered in 2014, I have had the car since new in 2012. Under no stretch of the definition can this either be considered "immediate".
Edit: Apologies, in the time I took to compile several others beat me to it.
Regards