MD Helicopters has announced plans to redesign the MD902 Explorer light-twin utility helicopter with new parts developed in-house as part of a campaign to boost sales by making the aircraft more affordable.
The new design – provisionally named the MD969 – should be completed by the end of this year, with certification in 2017 and first deliveries in 2018, says Lynn Tilton, chief executive ofr Patriarch Partners, a private equity firm that owns MD Helicopters.
If that timetable holds, the MD969 will appear 26 years after the debut of the original MD902 designed by McDonnell Douglas. Following a merger in 1997, the new ownership at Boeing exhibited little interest in commercial sales of the MD902, Tilton says. She acquired the company from a Dutch entrepreneur in late 2005, who struggled to support the fleet.
“So the supply chain, who feels burnt by the absence of robust sales, have made it way too expensive for us and that hurts our customers,” Tilton says.
It is not unlike the situation on MD Helicopters’ line-up of single-engined, 500-series helicopters that Tilton inherited in 2005. She pursued a similar strategy of bringing parts production in-house and developing new versions of the aircraft.
MD Helicopters now builds the armed MD530F and MD530G. It is also developing the heavier-weight MD540A, but the company has a problem with the prospective engine supplier, Rolls-Royce, Tilton says.
R-R is expected to deliver the upgraded Model 250-C47E engine to support the certification phase, but there have been delays, she says.
“We have somehow fallen behind on their top customer list,” says Tilton. “In order to get my certification done on these upgraded aircraft I must get an engine in my hand because I don’t want to certify with any other engine.”
Source: FlightGlobal.com
