Boy does that box feels narrow now!

It might get better by the Christmas demo event,
but then it will start to shrink again, difficult battle!

Or, alternatively accept that disruptors need reality checkers to stop them rushing off at a tangent.

We could glad-hand and high-five every new piece of trim or door handle but those details are peripheral to the real need for a running engine and a flying prototype - when those appear I am sure you will see some positivity.

​​​​​​​Until then I'll avoid the 'Californian' cheer everything and celebrate mediocrity mentality thanks.

For those asking about skids, the option for skids was available right from the very beginning, as soon as the website was put up. So it's nothing new and no, they are not replacing the wheels with skids - it's just an option for those that want them, and they expect skids to reduce performance and max cruise speed compared to the retractable wheels.

They also reduce the chances of landing with the gear retracted, which I would say for the target market is a very high probability!

It would be very easy to program a warning when the helicopter goes below ETL with the gear retracted. If wheeled helicopters don't already do this, they certainly ought to. It's such a simple solution. (OGE hovers will trigger it too but that's fine if it's just a warning light and one-time audio alert).

And most helicopters with wheels have such warnings - doesn't stop people landing them with the gear up though.

You could be onto a winner there - maybe write to Sikorsky, Airbus and Leonardo with your suggestion.

Even when C & T folk are flying solo, twice. I confess the horn saved me once, single pilot going onto a barge.

I'm one of those guys. I am a business owner, and in an earlier life I was a Commercial Pilot as well as an Engineer (A & P). I'd like to think I'm successful 😳.....at least the wife's Visa card has never been blocked. I am number 24 on the order list. I currently fly a 407 that I have owned for 10 years. In the early going, I talked with Jason on several occasions. I grilled him with questions based on my experience. I've always been the type that would never buy the "Model A" of anything. In the end, I felt comfortable and sent some money. I fully understand that it is 'risk money', but my gut feeling was that Jason genuinely knew what he was talking about. When I tell my friends about the HX50, I describe to them that my 407 is basically 60's & 70's technology, probably originally designed on a slide rule. I'm not knocking the Bell products, but that is a fact. I have a swollen LongRanger with a bigger Allison engine similar to the design of the old JetRangers. How inconceivable is it to think that a guy like Jason, who has worked for other manufacturers, could take all the knowledge and spin off with a new design coupled with the latest and greatest of technology available to help him? Is he optimistic on delivery dates? Probably, there will always be setbacks. I can wait. I'd rather know that the kinks are worked out of the design before I pick mine up. I still feel confident on his design and program that he is running. If it were that easy, we would all be designing something brilliant. I'm flying out in December with my wife to see their progress (if her Visa card still permits!). I've never been to the UK. I think there are 4 others in my area in Western Canada that have orders in. I know those guys well, and their success stories would diminish my own by a margin. I like what I see. I've made some bad choices before in my life, but I don't think this will be one of them. I think I last posted about 60 pages back, and hadn't tuned in for some time. I can see that it is the same group of pessimists clogging the forum. Have you tuned in to any of their updates? That might be a start. There are some good people in all walks of life coming up with brilliant products. Some will hit it right out of the park. I got my money on this horse and still sleep well at night.

My experience and thoughts are almost identical

I for one am glad to see so many people excited to invest in this sort of venture. I would love to hear more people explain what the current Helicopter manufacturers are doing so wrong that they are willing to gamble on an unproven entrepreneur. The styling is nice, but the rest appears conventional and not revolutionary. Bold performance numbers and cost estimates but those are unlikely to prove true… physics dominates. Why take the risk? Why not approach the existing OEM’s?

Another out of the box question:
Considering the HX50 and HC50 really need 3 to 4 years to come to maturity (all problem solved, manufacturing on a stable way),
Does Hill has enougth runway ahead?
is the light personal helicopter market still good for 20 years?

If you look at these companies: Joby Aviation( https://www.jobyaviation.com )
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....313914130a.png
They have a lot in common with the way Hill is thinking innovation and manufacturing wise.

or Archer aviation ( https://www.archer.com )
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....2f3c065ebe.png

They also promise 2028 certification

With those designs, there is no safe way to the ground if you lose all power. Plus, those props and actuators and such will all need to be inspected and maintained. How can that be better than a helicopter or tilt rotor? The archer and joby birds have wings that hurt hover performance and don’t have the endurance to use them for forward flight for very long. I do not understand these designs. What happened to the 609? I don’t need pressurized cabin but I like tiltrotors better than octo-copter or whatever those things are.

JH keeps saying it is a convential design using upto date technical & engineering, done in house.

So, in fact, not ground-breaking nor innovative - just another helicopter.........

If you take away all the talk, CGI, mockups and videos etc...all you have (for around £50 million) is a collection of parts. No sign of a working engine, a gearbox, any blades, or a factory.

I am looking forward to seeing what is unveiled at Duxford in five weeks time.

Is it pessimism if it's correct? Hill has/have timeline slippage. Price has gone up. Performance remains to be seen (at this point I have no reason to doubt that performance figures will be met). Instead of pessimism I see talking out of experience.

eVTOLs are exciting but they are not replacements for helicopters - they're extremely short-range and their use cases are all very short-distance trips, like ferrying people between Manhattan and LaGuardia.

With regard to the price increase, I think those increases were stated at the beginning. The first 100 orders got in at the cheapest price (295), the next batch at an increased price. I think they are on their third price level, soon to be encountering the fourth (595??), but I may be wrong here.

The final public price target was stated as £495k very early, then updated to £595k a couple of years ago, where it has remained since.

I believe "the price is going up" is confusion about the discounted purchase incentive for early customers.

Early customers who were happy with holding higher development risk, are contracted to quite large discounts, in return for a small deposit that helps fund the development. These discounts have slowly reduced linearly to almost full price nearing 1000 orders. So all this talk of "the price is going up" actually just means that that as the risk curve asymptotes to zero, the discounts drop off and the price approaches the final retail price. Any person at any time has always been able to place an order for their acceptable risk appetite. If you're not happy, just wait until the milestone that you want to see, whether that is engine, prototype flying or the first 100 out of the factory and flying.