Eric,
Airbus Helicopters did the Puma 2 (post #19).
The arguments about fuselage plugs and different undercarriage are all well made but fail to appreciate that the Pu2 project was not about capability enhancement, it was about life extension and that was the sole basis for funding. The Turmo engines had long been recognised as the aircraft's achilles heel and the risk held by RTSA had a calendar backstop of the proposed Pu1 OSD. Extending Puma was only possible with new engines. The cockpit came with the engines as it was already a CS29 certified combination and was considered the least risky way of doing it. This also explains why there was no moving map or other tactical integration done when the project was approved - there was no funding for capability enhancement. The DAS was lifted straight out of the Chinook TES enhancement (Project BAKER) and, despite my attempts, retained the small DAS MFD as every single money saving corner was cut to keep the aircraft alive (it would have cost too much to re-qual the larger display with the DAS Controller and possibly some cockpit structure work). Please do not think that those who worked tirelessly to keep Puma (one of them currently in the desert in Oz) did not try every avenue to upgrade the old girl through sleight of hand, but in the end just keeping the project alive was a minor miracle. They did what they could. The UH-60 is undoubtedly a capable aircraft (and I enjoy flying it whenever I can), but old UH-60As (cheap) have obsolescence issues already (hence why a number of aftermarket companies are re-working them) but a newer, more capable, UH-60L are a lot more money. Either would have faced the long drawn out certification/release period and either re-equipping with UK grade DAS/avionics (with time/cost delays) or accepting a potentially lower capability. IMHO, for what we spent, considering the need to do it quickly and maintain capability while Chinook went through the fleet Julius fit (please, don't start me on that one...) and the Merlin transition occurred, all in all, I see it as "job done". That's not to say a few more spares wouldn't be handy....