McDONNELL DOUGLAS Helicopter Systems (MDHS) is instituting "aggressive scheduling" to minimise the impact on the certification and delivery timetable of the crash of the second MD600N prototype.
Key to the recovery plan, however, is the findings of the board set up to investigate the 28 May accident. Should the board recommend any redesigns, then the plan is expected to be drastically altered and deliveries, originally slated to start around October, will not begin until early 1997.
The crash occurred when the main-rotor blade struck and partially severed the tail boom as the pilot performed control reversals at reduced rotor RPM. The pilot began an auto-rotative descent, but lost rotor RPM and landed heavily. The pilot escaped unhurt, the skid landing-gear absorbing the impact as designed, but the aircraft was destroyed by fire when nearby vegetation was set alight by the engine exhaust (Flight International, 12-18 June).
MDHS has delivered the first of four Explorer helicopters to Pittsburgh's Allegheny General Hospital, operator of one of the largest airborne medical services in the US. The helicopter was the eighteenth Explorer delivered since the first aircraft were shipped in December 1994. The company holds an order backlog of "around 50".
Source: Flight International
