After a steep drop in production in 2014, Robinson Helicopter expects sales and deliveries to rebound this year and remain at least steady for the long-term.
“Our sales are already well beyond what they were in 2014. We’ve already increased production on the R66 and R44,” says Kurt Robinson, president of Robinson Helicopter.
The Rolls-Royce RR300-powered R66 programme suffered the most last year, with deliveries dropping to 101 from 191 last year. Overall helicopter deliveries dropped to 329 in 2014 from 523 in 2013.
Despite the one-year drop, Robinson renewed a 10-year agreement with R-R to supply a minimum of 100 RR300 turboshaft engines annually.
Robinson agreed to renew the agreement also despite rising competition. Bell Helicopter plans to release the 505 JetRanger X, a light, single-engined helicopter, in 2016, providing the R66 with its closest competitor at the bottom of the turbine-powered market.
The 505 is powered with the Turbomeca Arrius 2R turboshaft engine, which includes a full authority digital engine control (FADEC) system.
The RR300 lacks digital controls, but R-R receives alerts of any hot-starts or over-speed conditions through an electronic monitoring unit. That serves the purpose without adding expensive “bells-and-whistles”, Robinson says.
The company plans to release new versions of the R66, including a variant equipped with a cargo hook and another in law enforcement configuration, later this year, he says.
Certificating the R66 to operate in snow has been more problematic, due to the lack of appropriate weather, he says. But the company is still hopeful that it can complete testing for the snow certification by the end of this winter season, he says.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
