Potentially the biggest worry faced by MDHI is the uncertainty of the Boeing money.
Although lauded as the answer to most of their problems the little I have noted on the military programme [Little Bird] suggests at least the danger of Boeing ceasing payment/support as soon as the result of the competition being announced if that result finds against the Little Bird. I know that these programme decisions keep slipping but the last decision date I am aware of was June 2005, just around the corner. Two months.
In all cases I suspect that wherever the final financial solution comes from [Little Bird/China/Brazil etc] it will be a year before any end user relief is visible [in terms of spares freely available]. And then of course there is the little matter of catching up with all that difficult to fund product development.
We are three months on from each of the rescue plans that failed to appear on cue ... the Sikorsky, Bell, China options .... and time is pressing. Kaman needs to be sweetened and parts production [again a year] restarted to get Explorer back on line.
Even the 'acquisition of MDHI by a well respected and well funded helicopter manufacturer' is likely to face a year in the relative doldrums. In a way it is potentially fortunate that delivery lead times in the industry are of a similar order [12 months+].
In the meanwhile operators are having to make decisions that may lead to a section of the current fleet [under 100] being parted out to support the rest. Recent accidents may be having a small positive effect on supply and demand on the type. Such pressures will inevitable lead to some operators failing to even consider operating the Explorer in future if only on the grounds that an existing fleet may not be able to grow using a common type.