Originally Posted by
etudiant
What kind of a fix that would be both trustworthy and economic is possible? It seems like squaring the circle. Gearboxes are difficult to make very reliable and these 225 accidents are after moderate service hours. Replacing parts after 1000 hours might solve the problem but destroy the economic viability of the type. The slump in demand just accentuates the problem. What do our industry pros think can be done?
There are over 100 aircraft that AH will need to fix. EuroCopter would not likely have had the financial resources to survive this problem. But the new owners Airbus does have the financial resources to make the repairs required on the aircraft to return them to service with some new customer. The significant cost of fixing the aircraft is preferable to the financial damage to Airbus Helicopter's reputation by scrapping them.
Also consider that AH intended to keep the EC225 model in production for another decade. And its replacement model, the X6, won't be ready for several years.