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Old 17th March 2010 | 15:39
  #333 (permalink)  
widgeon
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Joined: Mar 2003
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From: the hills of halton
Agree with darkhorse except for one point , construction . If you can clone the blade so it has the same stiffness ( both in twist and bending ) I would think you could minmize the flight testing. However the structural testing would included a full spectrum fatigue test to validate the life of the blade , possibly some coupon testing of samples that have been exposed to high temp and humidity for some length of time and enormous product liability insurance.

http://www.comlaw.gov.au/ComLaw/Legislation/LegislativeInstrument1.nsf/0/5D9AF416E0AE9121CA2575DA000884C6/$file/BELL47102.pdf

Shows a section of the blade , i assume fairly close to the root . It appears to consist of a metal ( alum ) D spar , a nose weight , fibreglass or bonded metal trailing edge with a small secondary spar . To do and exact copy may have some problems with the procurement of the adhesives that may no longer be available. Of course if someone had access to the original tooling and process sheets the adhesive becomes less of a problem . Did the company that took over the TC also get the tooling ?

Scott’s Helicopter Gets Bell 47 Type Certificate | VTOLBLOG
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