Helowriter wrote:
Actually, Stonecipher bragged about the move in an AvWeek interview.
He said he gave the civil helicopter guys three years to make money.
When they didn't, he sold 'em.

The explanation from Mesa at the time of the divestituture was the
big-shots at Boeing did not want to waste their time selling one or two
MD500s or MDExplorers piecemeal to police departments or hospitals.
They saw themselves as global players moving 50 747s in a single order.
A 20-year Apache or Chinook program was worthy of their efforts.

Lost on such Captains of Industry is the fact that the civil and
military sides of the helicopter business are closely connected.
Suddenly, the Army wants 368 Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters, and
Boeing has no air vehicle. The decision also gave Eurocopter global
market share it might not have otherwise gained.

I do hope this works out because the MDHI product line is such a good
one. I suspect a Little-Bird based ARH would be a better combat
helicopter than an upgraded Bell 407.

HW

MDHS dumped the commercial side of the business because it was never in
the black. The accounting methods for the commercial side were such a
mess that the company never could figure out exactly how much it cost to
build one and invariably wound up losing money on every one due to low
sales. Stonecipher (and the new president of MDHS at the time) gave the
commercial guys three years to show a profit - any kind of profit - and
they couldn't do it.

The two primes for the ARH competition are Bell and Boeing. When the
contract is awarded (ostensibly in July - but AMCOM rarely meets a
deadline) it will go to one of those - not to MDHI. Boeing is bidding
the basic airframe from MDHI and will do the conversion itself. MDHI
hasn't the technical or industrial capability of militarizing the
aircraft. Bell is hoping that the Army will think that it's 40 year old
flapper technology is really the future. Boeing is hoping that it
doesn't have to buy back MDHI to stay in the competition.

In typical Army fashion, they've taken what was supposed to be a light
armed recon aircraft and written a procurement spec for the ARH that has
turned it into a midget Apache. Many of those in the bidding are
referring to the whole process as the "Flying Bradley - Part Deux". A
hefty slug of the Army types that were involved in the Commanche fiasco
are now involved in the ARH program.

This could be one of those programs that the winner wishes they'd lost.

Vygg

BTW - the military and civil helicopter businesses are not closely
connected. FAA vs. MIL-SPEC, accounting rules, FARs, performance
requirements, etc. render the two very, very different. A UH-1 is a
JetRanger on the surface only.