Lu: thanks for your CV...very impressive indeed keep up with the inputs. It would be nice though to hear some good news about some helo design out there!! There must be a success story somewhere!!
My comments regarding the water-borne capabilities of the EH 101 are based on briefings by a MOD company who are now in partnership with an overseas company based in a country famous for its pizzas!!
They declared that the aircraft did not have the lift capability of launching from the sea in anything other than sea state 1 with all systems operating. From experience the S61 I flew onto lakes, 5 times a day many years ago was taped up and assessed watertight even then, it leaked about a half ton of water every minute it remained on the water!! This was when the surface was ripple free!!
The chances of a non existant sea state in any of the envisaged operating areas of the 101, together with the fact that the a/c did not have a 'boat hull' and in addition the possibility of it being there because a system had failed gave rise to their statement that this a/c was not intended to fly away from a sea landing.
Add to that the teaching that a helo should not be flown off the water after a 'surprise' landing due to the inability to confirm the integrity of the tail rotor and sea water ingress to its electrics...reinforced this opinion.
Your other point regarding ..."how is the a/c recovered..."
The same way we always recovered them:
lifting gear onto a support vessel's deck, or towing ashore (if nearby)but this invariably led to the loss of the craft due to swamping!! Good to watch though!!
Take care..
------------------
TC