Having been in the industry since 1955 and working in assurance engineering since 1968 I would say it would be a record especially in the design of military helicopters if the airframe manufacturers got it right from the beginning. That helicopters were to meet the specifications developed by the military in order to be fielded and supported at an optimal cost and not constantly drain money from the US Treasury in order to correct the malfunctions that were never anticipated during the design phase.
Military helicopter programs suffer from cost overruns, which are in turn exacerbated by the changing levels of inflation. In operation military helicopters never meet the reliability predictions and / or availability requirements set down in the mil specs for the helicopter nor do they ever achieve the safety goals set down in the mil specs.
Having said that I would think that in order to set these records the mil specs that govern the various aspects of assurance engineering be changed in order to reflect real life and not just a bunch of numbers that can be manipulated in order to show compliance. This is one of the main reasons that the fielded helicopters do not meet spec requirements. Engineering management at the airframe manufacturers should also change their attitudes about assurance engineering and the interfaces with design engineering.
If all of this were accomplished a true record will have been set. Civil helicopters suffer from some of these same problems.
