I find here that the comparison of automotive to helicopter manufacturing similar to comparing apples to say, rocks. Automotive has the luxury of high tech robotic assembley line fabrication, build and assembly far advanced, than the antiquated and dated ways of how helicopters are constructed. Just think how many Toyota Corollas role off the line in a day verses say 76's????!!!
The cost of parts and their increases, do not require a degree in physics to under stand die, tooling, fabrication, and assembly costs to both sides....automotive has massive volume out the door and must compete against aftermarket corporations that may build their replacement parts cheaper...don't see too much of that in our industry other than some innovative accessories like cargo baskets. Also labour costs in stocking and shipping with low volume adds to that cost. How about R and D costs, destructive testing, certification requirements, tracking and traceability, flight testing, etc, etc. that we are faced with?
Trying to construct something as light as possible and defy gravity and still maintain structural integrity and safety under some pretty harse operating conditions, is a tough challenge for any manufacturer. All those brilliant engineers that design these....we manage to take them into the field and show them what they did wrong....
