Originally Posted by spinwing
is the C30 installation due to the difficulty of find C28 engines or is there some other reason?
CALSTAR's re-engining effort was driven by support concerns regarding the C28, Indy having announced an exit strategy for Series III support in the mid-2000s. As well as protecting its own BO105LS operation CALSTAR also hoped to find third party customers for the conversion, but the STC took longer than expected to complete, and by the time it reached the market there weren't many LS still in operation.
Steve Fosset became involved in the project for a while when he planned to set a [hover?] endurance record with the BO105/C30, but that project never came to fruition.
Benefits of the conversion included more power (+30%), lower operating costs (-40%), improved OEI safety and reduced emissions.
Originally Posted by helicopterray
The main gearbox is the weakest link
Agreed. The BO105LS box is plumbed for C28s (832 shp combined TO rating), whereas the AS355 box is only rated for C20s or Arrius 1s (685 shp).
Originally Posted by helicopterray
one would be better off fitting the new RR500 engines for better performance, fuel economy, (relatively speaking), and reduced maintenance costs
Can't see the business case for this myself. The relatively mild improvements offered (+5% power vs. the C20R) would never justify the cost for most operators, not to mention the difference in available support for the two types. Then there's the small issue of the RR500 project being
'on hold' due to a lack of customer interest...
I/C