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Europe's future medium-lift helicopter


Dawes

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7 hours ago, shep854 said:

Common sense vs politics...guess. 

Arguably the common sense POV is assuming that the US will make such a giant mess of anything helo related, that this will be their big chance to crack the US market, not the other way around.

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20 minutes ago, CaptLuke said:

Arguably the common sense POV is assuming that the US will make such a giant mess of anything helo related, that this will be their big chance to crack the US market, not the other way around.

The pendulum swings both ways...

I thought of the FAL/M14 mess as I typed

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8 hours ago, Simon Tan said:

All these multinational efforts have turned into the usual dog and pony shows. See NH90. Jeezus.

They can work...sometimes...the advantage of Euro model of doing things is that when the organization is created just for the aircraft, risk of tail wagging the dog is markedly reduced as the organization has a finite shelf-life instead of creating a military-industrial monstrosity which then lobs for orders to keep itself in existence.

Of course the counter-argument is NH90.

 

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The organization will always seek to extend it's own existence. It is a natural state. In the case of NATO medium lift, just sign up for Defiance. Get a production license, do localizations and be very, very happy. Everything else is just bureaucratic welfare. The underlying technology is so far ahead of everything in the rest of NATO. Think of it like Sea King.

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1 hour ago, CaptLuke said:

Arguably the common sense POV is assuming that the US will make such a giant mess of anything helo related, that this will be their big chance to crack the US market, not the other way around.

Europe has made some inroads to the US market with the UH-72 Lakota and the MH-139 Gray Wolf. If we had selected the Airbus KC-45 (the USAF's original choice), we may have had some serviceable tankers by now.  

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It probably has a better chance of reaching production than the French-German attempt at a heavy lift helicopter, if only because Europe has actually built successful medium lift rotorcraft, and the market makes it commercially viable. Then again, yeah, those dedicated multi-national projects tend to be drawn out with lotsa problems because everyone wants his particular requirements and production shares satisfied - NH90, A400M, I cud go on nad on ... 

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Which is why licensing the most promising technology and running with it for nation specific needs makes a lot more sense. Also Sam will have no capacity for NATO for a while. X2/Defiant is already in engineering. S97 is already flying.

ETA:- Defiant is has been flying as well!

(128) Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant Takes Flight - YouTube

Edited by Simon Tan
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Would this work?  Most of the conceptual and design work has already been done.
 

Now I will not be around past 2038, but somehow I think that any Medium Lift helicopter will follow this concept, following the example, but improving upon the Osprey.

https://james-camerons-avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Aerospatiale_SA-2_Samson#History

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