So, how can anybody design a "benign, failsafe machine" for R22 prices?
As I understand it, stability is the other end of the spectrum from manoeuvrability. A DC-3 is very stable, but not very agile. An F-16 is very agile, but totally unstable, and needs a computer bank to make it flyable.
Choppers are the same. Artificial stability takes out some of the agility. An R22 is very nippy, but you can't let go of that stick. It is also very light. But toss in a stability system (to make it benign) plus a couple more (to make it failsafe) plus the actuators and the generators to power it, and it isn't an R22 any more. It is more like the R88 in another thread.
The lower end of the market will always be the equivalent of the B206, without any add-ons, doing the hard yards. You cannot afford the good bits when somebody keeps undercutting the tender prices just for the cash flow.
But it would be nice to get a bit further up the food chain and away from the 1950s designs. Our Huey is 43 years old, but it looks magnificent and sounds even better. Even our S76 is 20 years old, but the step up to autopilots and SAS, with benign, almost fail-safe systems, is so nice!!
