Costanza update: Kevin wins

Everything they touch immediately falls two years behind schedule and %100 over budget. Osprey, ARH, AH-1Z, UH-1Y, etc, etc..... The last thing they delivered on time was an airplane. Ouch.

I would have mentioned all of their civilian product line miscues but that's enough to fill a book. Double ouch.

I would also give them credit for the AH-1 Cobra, which was developed on the cheap because it was needed, and was good enough to kill the AH-56 Cheyenne.

It flew less than a year after design started...not too shabby.

The Bell 47, while a success, hit the scene in the 1940s, of course.

Wiki-ing them, I noticed that they went with a 2 blade rotor in the competition that they had with Hughes Helicopter over what became the AH-64....What the hell were they thinking?

Not to pile on, but their aircraft weren't exactly spectacular. XFM-1 Airacuda - twin engined escort fighter, non starter. P-39 Airacobra and it's "related" (in the same sense that the Super Hornet is "related" to the Hornet) development, the P-63 Kingcobra, meh. Sub par high altitude performance, the Russians used them as low level ground attack aircraft, and we used them in the South Pacific until we could get something better, but that's about it. the P-59 Airacomet, the first American jet fighter, was a complete flop. As for the X-1, legendary, yes. But supersonic design quickly went in another direction from its bullet shaped fuselage.

I was actually going to contest this on the grounds of the Bell 47, Huey, Jetranger, and early Cobra models, but then I realized that all those were a half century ago. Also, you can add losing the AAH contract to Hughes' Apache to the list of helo related failures.

THE WRONG GEORGE?

Sorry Stephen, I never found the time or desire to watch "Seinfeld". I am an avid fan however of old Jimmy Stewart movies. I especially like Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life". You must have seen this classic movie about a man named "George Bailey". The Jimmy Stewart character George Bailey is a small business man that struggles against larger and more powerful companies in a valiant if sometimes unsuccessful effort to improve humanity. Only after decades of personal sacrifices, often placing his business at the brink of financial ruin does George and his entire community fully recognize the wonderful and spectacular accomplishments his business achieved.

Yes, for the past 25 years Eurocopter and Sikorsky have profited well by improving their products at a snails pace (still using metal airframes?, mechanical flight controls?) while Bell invested heavily in both military and commercial Tiltrotor technology.

For George Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life" Christmas Eve marked the turning point of all his life’s sacrifices. For Bell, with the successful Iraq deployment of the V-22 Osprey and the upcoming FAA certification of the BA609 commercial Tiltrotor, Christmas bells may soon be ringing.

Have fun,

CTR

First fly-by-wire commercial rotorcraft: Bell Agusta BA609

First commercial rotorcraft with composite fuselage: Bell Agusta BA609

First pressurized fuselage rotorcraft: Bell Agusta BA609

First rotorcraft with fully triplex flight control system meeting FAA reliability requirements for commercial fixed wing aircraft: Bell Agusta BA609

World’s fastest commercial rotorcraft (over 280 kts): Bell Agusta BA609

Uh oh. (see link)

http://www.star-telegram.com/100/story/742112.html

Should have stuck with the AB139. AgustaWestland cannot build them fast enough.

Yikes! Not again.

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0937896220080709?rpc=401&

Time to dust off the Comanche?