I am intrigued by what Nick has to say about both types. I have to agree with him that the major flaw in the 332/225 product is the accommodation for both Passengers and crew.
It would seem that the Offshore Industry could not care less about the comfort and arguably the underlying safety for the Pax let alone crew. This has always left me frustrated as you would like to think that question numero one, when at the drawing board, would be "we need to transport X number of Pax and Crew in some kind of comfort with a high degree of safety"- and therefore start with the cabin/cockpit and build from there.
The prices being paid for these machines, and the numbers involved, must surely have supported the idea for a purpose built offshore machine, and not what we end up with always - a multi-role helicopter (Like lynx) tweaked and modified to operate in the offshore environment.
The S92 looks the part, but my limited in service experience of it is that it spends a lot of time on the sick. Hopefully this will improve.
The EC225 is clearly an attempt at improving an in service product that the offshore industry has "learned" to operate well over the past couple of decades, but I am left with the feeling that it must be the end of the road for the 332 design concept.
I am opening up for broadside here, but the 225 looks like an L2 with less baggage space but more fuel capacity!!!!
I would like to see somebody come up with at least a design concept for an offshore helicopter that meets all the requirements of our industry. Surely the Offshore industry must be the largest class of helicopter user worldwide!!!
Any thoughts