Not a lot of science I'm afraid but there is a correlation between the age of the machine (as opposed to the length of time that that particular type or model has been on the market) and the amount of tlc needed to keep it going.
This last year I've been flying a model (76A+) that is basically 30 years old although the machines we had were 20 years old or thereabouts. They, believe it or not, managed to clock up over 2,000 hours per annum ........for a while. Now they look and feel shagged and you wouldn't want your sister to fly in them if you judged them on looks alone.
Part of the psychology of passenger management is the correlation between the age of the aircraft and their confidence in it. Generally they like 'new' and don't like 'old'. You and I may know different but in their world they tend to oversimplify these things.
There is one national oil company in Europe that set 10 years for the max age for any helo on contract and our 'B' model 76s were squeezed out by that rule. I feel a little happier with a policy that
'no machine should be older than 15 years when tendered'
I think we will all be fascinated to see how the 'B' model S92, the 'B' model AW139 and the 'D' model S76 fair when they come into service. Reckon they will all be the dogs dooddas and maybe deliver that order of magnitude improvement in technical reliability we all crave.......... provided of course that there are enough engineers with the skills to maintain them and good enough training systems for the young men stepping forward to fly them.
G
