Sorry, I shouldn't have placed an emphasis on the incident that started that old thread, rather pointed to the view of one of the people who posted at the time, namely:

blakmax 26th November 2009 08:31
...These failures and the rash of disbonds which have occurred on aircraft which I believe have not had tail strikes are almost certainly due to weakening of the bond caused by micro-voids...

...Changing the skins or the core material without addressing the moisture contamination of the bond prior to and during production will still produce sub-standard adhesive bonds.

The poster seemed to be a credible source.

Returning briefly to the case where tail boom failed, while the PPRuNe thread also mentions accidental strikes, ASN doesn't yet provide any link to an official accident report.

At that time I was privy to information about it, as one of their local clients was part of my employer's wider Group of business units. Trust me, it had a deck edge strike.......

signed on the dotted line


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....22b49f5df.jpeg


https://uk.leonardo.com/en/helicopte...ium-helicopter

cheers

So the big question is, what will the AW149 be called in UK service? From the country that gave us the Vulcan, Valliant & Harrier it couldn't possibly be 'the AW149', wouldn't be British enough...

Any recommendations?

Well we have had VC-10 and BAe 146, so there is precedent

Whirlwind III.

WW3? Not good, bearing in mind the present world situation.

There was a Whirlwind 12….so this would have to be the Whirlwind 13… or then again, maybe not!

I was including the WW2 fighter; but then maybe it should be the 'IV' because many piston engined versions of the helicopter were re-worked to become turbines.

Yes. I did my initial RAF rotary course on the HAR 10. Looking back, it was quite large for a basic training aircraft. Seems bizarre that even to get in you had to climb an outside staircase and enter through the upstairs window.

When I arrived at Farnborough, my first flight was in a Wessex Mk 1 and I was given a special briefing about climbing the steps like 'don't grab the pitot'; rotary wise I'd only flown in a Brantly B2 before that.

Why not keep it simple and just call it "Leo"... as in bring in "Leo"... please do throw tomatoes!!!! :bored:

Plastic Fantastic or Blowup Doll or Plastic Pig? old S-76 names but will suit the 149.

I think Groundhog will be a fitting name for it

Considering the sclerotic 'pace' of delivery, how about the 'Leonardo Eventually'? It may yet, of course, become the 'Leonardo Intentionally Blank'….

Hangar queen?

"Cash Cow 189" ?

Pumas for sale!

https://www.mod-sales.com/stock/puma-hc-mk-2-helicopter


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....df1aef31c5.jpg

Why not just give them to Ukraine? 🤷‍♂️

Why not just flog them to generate some cash for out massively underfunded armed forces?

As if it wasn't enough, its not just about money, even with Kier's June 2025 big statement insisted that the Strategic Defence Review "commits us to a war footing" although it seems that SDR might have got lost down the back of a sofa or something

Some statistical analysis of UK military recruitment and retention suggests (if I understood it correctly) that in the last year there's been around 14,500 new recruits to all branches and around 8,500 made it through phase 1&2 training and around 13,500 regulars left the services

By my maths thats a negative amount of people in total but it appears that the Army managed to increase numbers overall by 0.6% so at that rate assuming it can be achieved across all three (four if you're a bootneck) services we should be there sometime well after Kier has left office!