Robinson Helicopter Maintenance

Bell Helicopter were once the market leaders, primarily on the strength of the Bell 206 JetRanger. Robinson introduced the two-seat Robinson R22 in the late 1970s and it was competitively very fast, and offered the lowest operating costs of any helicopter. Bell were arguably complacent.

The Robinson R44, when it came out, was nearer competing with the Bell 206 JetRanger in terms of payload and cruise speed, and cost just a quarter of the purchase price of the JetRanger and had an operating cost of less than half. By limiting the power drawn from the piston engine, the engine and tranmission reliability of the Robinson R44 has been very close to that of small turbine-powered helicopters.

When Robinson developed the Robinson R66, with turbine engines, the die was cast and the race was won.

Helicopter engine maintenance

What about helicopter maintenance though? Turbine engines have a reputation for extreme reliability, but physically small turbines, such as those that go into low-power helicopter engines, are subject to a lot of thermal stress and are not nearly as reliable as the turbines in an Airbus.

Greater helicopter engine maintenance costs? ... Piston engines have a reputation for unreliability, but the engines often operate at 100 percent power. The R44's piston engine was reliable... light turbine helicopters have the least reliable of turbine engines, because of the helicopter transmissions coping with turbines spinning up to 120 times faster than helicopter rotors spin.

Eurocopter EC120 maintenance and overhaul

The Eurocopter EC120 is a quiet machine with its fenestron anti-torque rotor in the tail. It is considered more costly to purchase and to operate. Eurocopter service and support, in the maintenance hangar waiting for service bulletins and airworthiness directives to be done, is where the competition will be won or lost.

Maintenance, overhaul and helicopter spare parts costs

Maintenance, overhaul, and spare parts costs is used by Bell to encourage the purchase of new helicopters.

Schweizer, owned by Sikorsky, have developed the Schweizer 434 which is also turbine-powered and has a four-blade rotor system. This could be a very nimble helicopter to fly, but is unlikely to compete on costs, because of its emphasis on sales to the military.

Helicopter RR300 engines

Robinson Helicopters and Rolls-Royce have announced that the R66 will use the RR300, a derivative of the same Allison helicopter engines that have powered Bell Helicopters.