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Hill Helicopters HX50

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Old 23rd Aug 2022, 06:51
  #521 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by 206 jock
Great! Did someone also ask 'what happens if you disappear to somewhere without an extradition treaty with the UK with all of our deposit cash?'
The next set of financials should be interesting, they (as you'd expect) are burning cash at a rate and that isn't about to stop.
That gives them a year or so on the most recent deposits, expecting to maintain that pace of orders is risky and it is unlikely they will have a final product ready in time to collect the outstanding balances from punters. Hope the cashflow remains positive, or in their case, acceptably negative.
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Old 23rd Aug 2022, 07:04
  #522 (permalink)  
 
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Over the last couple of years he's been asked and has answered, openly, every awkward question you could imagine about his integrity, finances, capability, risk and motivation. The videos are out there and available for anyone to form a considered opinion for themselves.
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Old 23rd Aug 2022, 07:27
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For anyone interested, here's the planning notice:
Planning Applications - Staffordshire Moorlands District Council
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Old 23rd Aug 2022, 08:45
  #524 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by domperry76
For anyone interested, here's the planning notice:
Planning Applications - Staffordshire Moorlands District Council
You have to love some of the objections, varying from just a moan, too many potholes to expecting an uninterrupted view for life.
Some were much smarter objecting to the lack of noise assessments for testing and training.
If anything will be a problem it will be noise abatement - it's a bit difficult to hide the noise from 500+ builds per year and the hours that would take.
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Old 23rd Aug 2022, 09:23
  #525 (permalink)  
 
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500+ builds a year? That's at least two aircraft being built and ground run & test flown every single weekday. That's a hell of a lot of noise.
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Old 23rd Aug 2022, 12:54
  #526 (permalink)  
 
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that factory is too small to build 500 units a year.
Robinsons factory is over 600,000 square feet and they build rather fewer helicopters. their helicopters take up less space too.
as Elon musk likes to say. the easy bit is building a prototype or two. but production is the really challenging bit
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Old 23rd Aug 2022, 13:28
  #527 (permalink)  
 
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I would have guessed that the old ww2 RAF bases would be the best start for where to do something like that.
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Old 23rd Aug 2022, 17:39
  #528 (permalink)  
 
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To be fair, it's really weird to try to build a new airfield in a residential area. Obviously they can have noise abatement rules to only run engines during limited weekday hours, but those complaints are valid. It's disappointing that they did not anticipate that. Hopefully it doesn't delay prototype development.
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Old 23rd Aug 2022, 17:47
  #529 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by hargreaves99
500+ builds a year? That's at least two aircraft being built and ground run & test flown every single weekday. That's a hell of a lot of noise.
A hell of a lot of high quality employment for UK engineers. A hell of a lot of income for local and national businesses. A hell of a lot of export revenue for UK plc. It is indeed, a hell of a lot.
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Old 23rd Aug 2022, 17:52
  #530 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by CGameProgrammerr
To be fair, it's really weird to try to build a new airfield in a residential area. Obviously they can have noise abatement rules to only run engines during limited weekday hours, but those complaints are valid. It's disappointing that they did not anticipate that. Hopefully it doesn't delay prototype development.
Take a look on Google Earth, its not a residential area. There are about four cats and a badger colony nearby - the rest is cows and grass (I exaggerate for effect).
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Old 23rd Aug 2022, 18:11
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NIMBY’S crack me up, how will vibration effect anyone and pollution can equally equate to all their 3 cars per household. Also they are happy to queue for their “volatile” fuel in petrol stations so what’s the difference?
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Old 23rd Aug 2022, 18:31
  #532 (permalink)  
 
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Might drown out the sound of the A50!
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Old 8th Oct 2022, 18:36
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No working engine yet, so a prototype flying by June 2023 is looking unlikely.
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Old 9th Oct 2022, 10:05
  #534 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by hargreaves99
No working engine yet, so a prototype flying by June 2023 is looking unlikely.
Have they blamed the energy prices and the war in Ukraine yet?
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Old 9th Oct 2022, 17:13
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I like to think I'm one of the most optimistic people on the planet...

...but even I don't think this project is going to deliver anything more than lots of beautiful renders and lots and lots and lots of disappointed and significantly out of pocket "clients".

Sorry.

If it sounds too good to be true...
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Old 10th Oct 2022, 06:19
  #536 (permalink)  
 
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I actually had an hours conversation with Jason last week, interesting we were talking hinge offsets as to what was the best helicopter in turbulence, comparing 350 to 341 to 269 and 369. Without doubt the 369 rides turbulence way better.
As for engines, what everyone has to bear in mind a turbine engine is actually very cheap to make despite what the OEM's tell us. A compressor wheel in a RR 250 costs around £ 180 for a manufacturer to make, with his margin on it. Jason is actually setting up the manufacture of the parts rather than relying on 3 rd parties. Crab yes the war does make a difference, where does just about all the world's titanium come from? , I will let you find out.
It is typical of this woke country we live in where we always want to run down people who are doing well, most of you should go and work for the BBC and continue to run anything GB down. Of course there are going to be problems but come on guys !
He has taken lots of orders from people who have done a lot of due diligence on the company and are happy to put their money down, dont see too many manufactures having an order book like his !
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Old 10th Oct 2022, 07:12
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over 150 planning comments for the new factory. vast majority are against
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Old 10th Oct 2022, 07:20
  #538 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by hargreaves99
over 150 planning comments for the new factory. vast majority are against
Which is about the same as you would get for a new housing development...your point is?
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Old 10th Oct 2022, 07:55
  #539 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by Hughes500
I actually had an hours conversation with Jason last week, interesting we were talking hinge offsets as to what was the best helicopter in turbulence, comparing 350 to 341 to 269 and 369. Without doubt the 369 rides turbulence way better.
As for engines, what everyone has to bear in mind a turbine engine is actually very cheap to make despite what the OEM's tell us. A compressor wheel in a RR 250 costs around £ 180 for a manufacturer to make, with his margin on it. Jason is actually setting up the manufacture of the parts rather than relying on 3 rd parties. Crab yes the war does make a difference, where does just about all the world's titanium come from? , I will let you find out.
It is typical of this woke country we live in where we always want to run down people who are doing well, most of you should go and work for the BBC and continue to run anything GB down. Of course there are going to be problems but come on guys !
He has taken lots of orders from people who have done a lot of due diligence on the company and are happy to put their money down, dont see too many manufactures having an order book like his !
If that is the case, where is the working engine? IIRC, he promised some quite revolutionary numbers on fuel consumption, meaning his engine is not off-the-shelf one, which in turn means there has to be some testing because I don't know of a single project that worked right off the bat.
While I appreciate that CAD programing can considerably speed things up, that engine needs to be bench tested, fitted into airframe, ground tested as a whole and only then flown. A lot of things to do with only 8 months to go.
It's not that I am against the idea of "cheap" helicopter, I am more for under-promise and over-deliver approach. Will this helicopter get in the air? Probably. On price point and time schedule? Probably not.
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Old 10th Oct 2022, 08:17
  #540 (permalink)  
 
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I would love to see the maths going into Hughes mantra of a 180 squid turbine wheel.
I am sure if you ignore a lot of associated cost that could well be a number but one disconnected from reality.
Considering the money Hill is currently burning, that is a lot of indirect cost that his cheap engine will inherit.
I have no doubt he will eventually get his motor running, whether it will live up to the promises and how safe it will be, remains to be seen.
I would also suggest that the order book exists for the same reason fanboys queue outside an apple store for a new device - fomo, and the hope of making a buck from being early.

Last edited by Bell_ringer; 10th Oct 2022 at 08:39.
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