AuxHyd,
I am sure someone in Sikorsky will come back and reply to you fully but, just in case they don't, the S61 (in common with all aircraft) met the Standard of certification at the time it received its initial Type Certificate back in the 1960s (and has had some improvements since then - the rotor blades with extended spars were one such improvement; the tail rotor with its changed build form was another).
Referring just to JAR 29 (or FAR 29 or CS 29) is too simplistic a statement; each helicopter has to meet the regulation at the time of its submission to an Authority for the Type Certificate.
A good example of this would be the recent announcements that the the S92 meets the latest FAR 29 (I think at revision 47 but might have that number slightly wrong).
No helicopter can expect continued modification to meet the latest standards - particularly as most of the recent revisions to FAR/JAR/CS 29 have been concerned with fault tolerance and crash-worthiness.
Meeting the latest design and built standards is one of the main reasons that the oil companies are changing out their equipment at the present time. They consider that the additional safety of a helicopter that has been built to a standard beyond FAR/JAR/CS 29 at revision 47 more than meets the cost of the new equipment.
Jim
Last edited by JimL; 9th July 2006 at 17:08.