MD - All Not Good in Mesa
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and 
Join Date: Apr 2007
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Anybody else nauseous in less than 8 seconds?
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Smoothing that trough behind that really thick abrasion strip works wonders for that blade! I am curious if it would improve the HTC tail rotor blades as much? I doubt you could find a filler to stay attached to the tail rotor blades though.
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Into the light
Poor Kermit is all I can say 
That dress was just like kitchen foil!
Whats that she just said....gone in with eyes closed? Not like her, was she given some duff info by any chance by the joker of submarine and tank fame?
That dress was just like kitchen foil!
Whats that she just said....gone in with eyes closed? Not like her, was she given some duff info by any chance by the joker of submarine and tank fame?
mark
I have the htc blades with the bigger erosion strip on ! We have just filled in the tr blade valley, perhaps thats why she goes so quick ( 73psi 130 kts 2 up full fuel plus 12 degrees ). Really filled the valley in to stop paint coming off in that area, obviously a vortice there , which cant help lift
I have the htc blades with the bigger erosion strip on ! We have just filled in the tr blade valley, perhaps thats why she goes so quick ( 73psi 130 kts 2 up full fuel plus 12 degrees ). Really filled the valley in to stop paint coming off in that area, obviously a vortice there , which cant help lift
Join Date: Oct 2004
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That big step off the trailing edge of the abrasion strip killed lift (I saw a 200 pound loss on a 520N) and CofP, lots of excess down-tab needed for collective loads, and that square patch that showed up on some blades (honey combe replacement for ribs) really ruined those blades. Filling and fairing seems to bring them back to performance. I wonder if anyone has shed the filler material in flight yet? Curious what change that makes in flight.
I thought the TR blades would have a problem from the abrasion strip too, that valley is just not right aerodynamically!
I just flew an old E with the old blades (main and tail), 65 psi got us 120 t0 125 kias, 2 pilots, full fuel and temps from 6F to 70F sea level to 6000
I thought the TR blades would have a problem from the abrasion strip too, that valley is just not right aerodynamically!
I just flew an old E with the old blades (main and tail), 65 psi got us 120 t0 125 kias, 2 pilots, full fuel and temps from 6F to 70F sea level to 6000
Avoid imitations
Join Date: Nov 2000
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Some folks are just too damned harsh, especially w.r.t. the unkind personal comments about her appearance. Without Ms. Tilton the company might have folded. So good on her in my book.
Avoid imitations
Join Date: Nov 2000
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She just needs a bit of advice on what to wear
teeth.
Join Date: Nov 2010
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The company saviour
Dont think for a moment that the might Ms T took over the company for the love of it or the people down at MD. She wanted all the US military contracts for the MONEY and stamped her feet when she didnt get any of them.
It may look as though she's running it but why do you think Henk is still a director from the joep RDM setup, a coincidence? naaahhh
It doesnt take Inspector Clouseau to join the dots together which take you straight back to the flying dutchman without passing GO. Its been a paper work excercise from day one. It might explain why there have been so many RDM men going through the revolving doors at MD and PAS?
I wonder if the IRS have been following the paper trail back and forth across the pond? but the rich dont pay taxes do they
It may look as though she's running it but why do you think Henk is still a director from the joep RDM setup, a coincidence? naaahhh
It doesnt take Inspector Clouseau to join the dots together which take you straight back to the flying dutchman without passing GO. Its been a paper work excercise from day one. It might explain why there have been so many RDM men going through the revolving doors at MD and PAS?
I wonder if the IRS have been following the paper trail back and forth across the pond? but the rich dont pay taxes do they
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Sorry, but Ms Tilton has done the company no favors. The company needed someone who was looking for long term recovery of the company, not someone who thought she could pump some money into it, win some big contracts and flip it to another buyer. They really needed a Sikorsky or other manufacturer who understands how to engineer helicopters.
MD has several good airframe designs that well deserve to stick around and be improved but they have stagnated. They need engineering improvement and to rebuild their support structure not sales hype.
MD has several good airframe designs that well deserve to stick around and be improved but they have stagnated. They need engineering improvement and to rebuild their support structure not sales hype.
Join Date: Apr 2005
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I agree! 
Tilton, while a shot in the arm for the company, doesn't seem to understand the business. I also think she figured on winning the LUH contract and got smacked alongside the head in the process.
MD for a while seemed to be the only company engineering and innovating in the light to medium market.
Bell? Please!?! Yes, I'll give you that the 407 is nice but it's still a 206 on steroids.
Sikorsky? What light to medium market???
Robinson? Only now making inroads into the light turbine market.
Hughes/MD/MDhelicopters seemed to be the only innovative risk taker in the market - NOTAR/900/902.
Who was the brain trust when that was developed? Long gone I bet!! Good stuff with promise all but R&D takes money and... I'm sure the brain drain is apparent at MD these days. Pity
Enter EC...
Bell seems to have lost direction, Sikorsky has nothing between the 434?!? and the S76, Robinson? Kay Sa Ra Sa Ra! What's left? Kaman? Boeing? Nope!
I think we're screwed here in the good 'ol USA...
Tilton, while a shot in the arm for the company, doesn't seem to understand the business. I also think she figured on winning the LUH contract and got smacked alongside the head in the process.
MD for a while seemed to be the only company engineering and innovating in the light to medium market.
Bell? Please!?! Yes, I'll give you that the 407 is nice but it's still a 206 on steroids.
Sikorsky? What light to medium market???
Robinson? Only now making inroads into the light turbine market.
Hughes/MD/MDhelicopters seemed to be the only innovative risk taker in the market - NOTAR/900/902.
Who was the brain trust when that was developed? Long gone I bet!! Good stuff with promise all but R&D takes money and... I'm sure the brain drain is apparent at MD these days. Pity
Enter EC...
Bell seems to have lost direction, Sikorsky has nothing between the 434?!? and the S76, Robinson? Kay Sa Ra Sa Ra! What's left? Kaman? Boeing? Nope!
I think we're screwed here in the good 'ol USA...
.
The separation of MDH's civilian line from its military counterpart represented a potentially lethal risk to the company's future. This risk could have been mitigated by absorption of the civilian line into a larger existing family of products. This almost happened in '98 but - the US Federal Trade Commission rejected the deal between Boeing and Bell.
By the time the Bell buy-out had failed MDH had already offloaded its 300 series to Schweizer and was left with the 500, 600 and 900 lines. The skepticism surrounding the 600 has led, rightly or wrongly, to a lack of confidence in the product which has in turn affected sales. The 900 series, MDH's breakthrough product, is in need of ongoing investment if it is to retain its already slender market share let alone penetrate further. The 500 shall continue to provide needed cash flows through spare parts sales but, new sales prospects (as I see it) are limited.
MDH no longer represents the opportunity it did 13 years ago when Bell were prepared to take them over. Moreover, product development among Agusta, Eurocopter and indeed Bell makes increasingly certain the gap between MDH and their contemporaries.
When MD Helicopter Holdings bought the civilian line in 1999 the opportunity existed to negotiate agreements with India, China and additional growing markets for the manufacture of training and light commercial helicopters under licence. According to my understanding this strategy was rejected. More recently, had MDH's sales and marketing team gone on an all out offensive it is conceivable that they could have won contracts for both the 500 and 900 in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Of the contracts that I am familiar with the MDH presence was scarce with one client never being contacted at all.
From a management perspective I am guessing that MDH's future is bleak with little hope of any reprieve and I find it difficult to imagine that any clear-thinking businessman acqauinted with the rotorcraft industry would be attracted by what they have to offer. Even their NOTAR technology is licenced from Boeing under the terms of the original sale!
Tilton's input (from what I have seen) has merely prolonged the firm's inevitable demise but .. I could be (and certainly wish to be) wrong.
This situation is depressing and it has been sad to watch MDH's increasing isolation over the years. Sincerely speaking, I am unsure what the way forward is. Some years back there were options but with every year that MDH stagnates those options diminish.
S.
The separation of MDH's civilian line from its military counterpart represented a potentially lethal risk to the company's future. This risk could have been mitigated by absorption of the civilian line into a larger existing family of products. This almost happened in '98 but - the US Federal Trade Commission rejected the deal between Boeing and Bell.
By the time the Bell buy-out had failed MDH had already offloaded its 300 series to Schweizer and was left with the 500, 600 and 900 lines. The skepticism surrounding the 600 has led, rightly or wrongly, to a lack of confidence in the product which has in turn affected sales. The 900 series, MDH's breakthrough product, is in need of ongoing investment if it is to retain its already slender market share let alone penetrate further. The 500 shall continue to provide needed cash flows through spare parts sales but, new sales prospects (as I see it) are limited.
MDH no longer represents the opportunity it did 13 years ago when Bell were prepared to take them over. Moreover, product development among Agusta, Eurocopter and indeed Bell makes increasingly certain the gap between MDH and their contemporaries.
When MD Helicopter Holdings bought the civilian line in 1999 the opportunity existed to negotiate agreements with India, China and additional growing markets for the manufacture of training and light commercial helicopters under licence. According to my understanding this strategy was rejected. More recently, had MDH's sales and marketing team gone on an all out offensive it is conceivable that they could have won contracts for both the 500 and 900 in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Of the contracts that I am familiar with the MDH presence was scarce with one client never being contacted at all.
From a management perspective I am guessing that MDH's future is bleak with little hope of any reprieve and I find it difficult to imagine that any clear-thinking businessman acqauinted with the rotorcraft industry would be attracted by what they have to offer. Even their NOTAR technology is licenced from Boeing under the terms of the original sale!
Tilton's input (from what I have seen) has merely prolonged the firm's inevitable demise but .. I could be (and certainly wish to be) wrong.
This situation is depressing and it has been sad to watch MDH's increasing isolation over the years. Sincerely speaking, I am unsure what the way forward is. Some years back there were options but with every year that MDH stagnates those options diminish.
S.
Tilton is in the private equity business, so her modus operandi is to buy a company make it (more) profitable, and sell it on. That is what private equity is about, so any grand speech she does saying she's rescuing some fine US company needs to be taken with a pinch of salt the size of a basketball.
As lynx no more said, she was hoping for military contracts and didn't get them - so the hoped-for increase in profit/value did not happen and she's left with a duck. Some improvements were found by outsourcing airframe production to Mexico, but at the production rates we're talking, the benefits are negligible.
What she needs to do is to find someone else with enough foresight and cash behind them to make these once-successful designs work. My gut feeling is that such buyers would only exist in China, India or possibly Brazil. Time will tell
As lynx no more said, she was hoping for military contracts and didn't get them - so the hoped-for increase in profit/value did not happen and she's left with a duck. Some improvements were found by outsourcing airframe production to Mexico, but at the production rates we're talking, the benefits are negligible.
What she needs to do is to find someone else with enough foresight and cash behind them to make these once-successful designs work. My gut feeling is that such buyers would only exist in China, India or possibly Brazil. Time will tell
We have been trying to get a 902 into Canada for the last 2 years. Still not certified in the country which has the world's 2nd largest civil helicopter fleet....
Patience has pretty well run out. As much as we like the product, customers support and longevity from MD doesn't look too promising.
LT doesn't look too bad after 15 or 16 browns......
Patience has pretty well run out. As much as we like the product, customers support and longevity from MD doesn't look too promising.
LT doesn't look too bad after 15 or 16 browns......
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In the Middle East LT tried to market by signing on with some fairly fly by night operators and then did their best to get them over the barrel. The in-fighting only served to hurt potential sales. They had a good chance in Saudi Arabia to sell a group of Medevac 902s for use by the Red Crescent but they managed to screw that up. In Kuwait they sat back and didn't object when a customer decided to overload a helicopter with a very unwise configuration which could not fly in their very hot temperatures.
Sales hype may work for selling one or two helicopters but eventually it only serves to sour the reputation of the company. Once that happens it is hard to ever win confidence back. Of course if your intention is to make a fast group of sales, proclaim a 'turn around' in every aviation periodical and then seek to sell the company onward it may work. I think LT made the mistake of believing her own hype and seeking too much for the company. The potential number of buyers out there are very limited for that kind of strategy. Right now I think only Sikorsky or the Chinese make sense as potential buyers unless someone like Embraer decides to enter the helicopter market.
Sales hype may work for selling one or two helicopters but eventually it only serves to sour the reputation of the company. Once that happens it is hard to ever win confidence back. Of course if your intention is to make a fast group of sales, proclaim a 'turn around' in every aviation periodical and then seek to sell the company onward it may work. I think LT made the mistake of believing her own hype and seeking too much for the company. The potential number of buyers out there are very limited for that kind of strategy. Right now I think only Sikorsky or the Chinese make sense as potential buyers unless someone like Embraer decides to enter the helicopter market.