Today Rotorhub posted a new twist in the story relating to the future of MDHI.
It suggests ... no, it states as fact .... that the deal surrounding Boeing’s ARH proposal a modified MELB (Mission Enhanced Little Bird) ... resulted in Boeing buying out the line from MDHI.
Whilst this has removed a debt it appears that it also removes MDHI from a direct earning potential via Little Bird. In short MDHI now effectively has nothing to gain or lose from either Bell or Boeing winning the ARH competition. They will still be able to sell a civil version though and Kaman [who build shells] may have gains.
http://www.shephard.co.uk/Rotorhub/D...a-a776f2bad55a
The latest on the West Midlands saga is that the Explorer remains grounded. After a couple of MGB changes 'made metal' it and a whole series of tests failed to show anything out of sync with the aircraft it was decided to await the results of a Kawasaki strip of one of the rejected boxes before risking another.
I am assured that there has been no shortage of gearboxes ... but just that it was time to call a halt to give this unusual situation time to be resolved.