Originally Posted by
admikar
And what were the answers?
Nothing really new. JH seems to be now getting more reluctant to give firm timelines (sensible), stating the main focus is getting the engine running by the end of the year, then having flying prototypes for testing all next year. In terms of production, they now have leased a reasonably large factory that needs to be completely fitted out, Production Centre 1, which they intend to consolidate their existing 3 separate facilities into, and start fabricating the prototypes.
They will then seek out a further Production Centre once they go into full scale production, and still claim to be on track to start churning them out in 2026 (improbable), with 475 units forecast to be made in the first year of production (again highly improbable). When pressed about why JH thinks he can churn out nearly 500 units per year, scaling up to 1000 per year, when other established helicopter manufacturers only make 100-300 units each year, he responded that manufacturers produce to match their demand, and that because he already knows there are 1,300 orders (likely many more once prototypes start flying), he will set up the factories to make 500 per year from the start. He is quite firm in his opinion that this number is not a particularly difficult number to achieve per year, and points to Robinson having made nearly 900 units in one of their early years (from a smaller factory than his) and Toyota making 13 million cars per year.
His confidence is somewhat convincing, and he does come with some pedigree given his background owning several engineering businesses with a good track record of delivering results, but this is a whole different ballgame.