Sikorsky To Acquire Schweizer Aircraft

This is an interesting piece of news from the helicopter industry:

STRATFORD, Conn.,- Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.,
a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp.
(NYSE: UTX), today announced an agreement
to acquire Schweizer Aircraft Corp., a
privately owned U.S. company specializing
in the light helicopter, reconnaissance
aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
markets.

Full article at:

http://www.sikorsky.com/details/0,30...TI1857,00.html

Schweizer press release (Adobe Acrobat .pdf format) at:

http://www.sacusa.com/Aquisition_Press_Release.pdf

I would guess that this deal has been in the works since well before
the passing on 18 August 2004 of Paul A. Schweizer.

I am sure that they have considered closely the best interests of both
their stakeholders and their employees. And I wish them well in all
their future business endeavors. However, I am still just a bit
wistful at the thought of them becoming another division of United
Technologies.

Oh, well, such is business. I hope that Sikorky treats them well.

Thanks, and best regards to all

Bob K.

Heh, I hope Schweizer makes better helicopters than they did gliders.

You'll probably be able to buy the manufacturing rights for the 2-33 on
ebay soon.

Gee, what a bright comment....I assume you can list
all those superior ships you flew in the '50's, '60's,
and '70's...when Schweitzer kept the US training fleet
soaring.



At 00:12 27 August 2004, wrote:
Heh, I hope Schweizer makes better helicopters than
they did gliders.

You'll probably be able to buy the manufacturing rights
for the 2-33 on
ebay soon.

wrote in message ...
Heh, I hope Schweizer makes better helicopters than they did gliders.

There was a time when Schweizer made some of the best gliders that money
could buy, but they went on to bigger and better things. Since Paul's death, I
have been thinking about Schweizer a lot. Over the years, there have been many
derogatory things said about the 2-33 here, some of them by me. I did not much
enjoy my days instructing in the 2-33. But the fact is that you have to go back
to 1978 to find a fatal accident in one. They are here for us to malign
precisely because the Schweizers built them right. Any one that you see has
likely survived decades of terrible student landings, some of them with me at
the controls.

There is one day that I will always remember like it was yesterday...the
day my 14 year-old daughter soloed, nestled inside the swaybacked structure of a
long-suffering 2-33. (And I will always remember her instructor, Mary Gafney,
wincing at that first terrible landing) There are better flying gliders, but I
can't think of any other flying machine I would rather have trusted my
first-born to.

Here in my study there is one picture of one glider hanging on the wall, it
is the 2-33 I soloed in, some ten years after my daughter did it. I will truly
miss Schweizer aircraft.

Vaughn

wrote:

Heh, I hope Schweizer makes better helicopters than they did gliders.

When you find a better trainer than the 2-33 for comparable money, let everybody know.
Until then, perhaps the 2-33 bashing bandwagon is one you should let pass. If there was
a better alternative, people who have been in the business for decades and know the
ropes would be using it instead of the 2-33.

Do you feel the 2-33 has caused your progress in soaring to be less than it would have
been if you had learned in something else, or are you just repeating what you think
you've heard?


Jack

wrote:

Heh, I hope Schweizer makes better helicopters than they did gliders.

It seems odd to disparage a company over a product they stopped making
almost 30 years ago, products that sold well at the time (e.g., 500+
2-33s produced sounds like there was a lot of perceived value back
then). I mean, don't we all hope we're doing things better now than 30
years ago?
--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

Eric Greenwell wrote:
wrote:

Heh, I hope Schweizer makes better helicopters than they did gliders.

It seems odd to disparage a company over a product they stopped making
almost 30 years ago, products that sold well at the time (e.g., 500+
2-33s produced sounds like there was a lot of perceived value back
then). I mean, don't we all hope we're doing things better now than 30
years ago?

I think he's trying to disparage the glider in the hopes of driving
the price down. Then he'll buy them all up because they're
so sturdy and reliable and he really likes them. Hmmm...sort of a
sneaky trick, don't you think?

Come to think of it, I bet the "anti-PW" posts are also
conspiracies to drive the price down so the posters can
snatch 'em up cheap. Why else would the posters bother
with such elaborate criticisms? The ol' bait and switch...

I'm not fallin' for it. Liam is clever, as are his co-conspirators,
but I see through his evil plan....
maniacal laughter pervades the background
--

------------+
Mark Boyd
Avenal, California, USA

When you find a better trainer than the 2-33 for comparable money, let
everybody know.

Generally speaking you get what you pay for. Hence, the low price for 2-33s

If there was a better alternative, people who have been in the business for
decades and know the ropes, would be using it instead of the 2-33.

They are, everywhere but in one of the world's most advanced country, the USA.


Do you feel the 2-33 has caused your progress in soaring to be less than it
would have been if you had learned in something else,...

As a CFIG for over 30 years and with time in almost every model of trainer
produced in that time span, I have to answer "yes" to this question. The 2-33s
not only retards the individual progress but also the progress of the sport in
general.

Robert Mudd

Heh, I hope Schweizer makes better helicopters than they did gliders.

They do make good helicopters. The 300 are based on the Hughes 269 type cert.
As for gliders, they seem to have withstood the test of time.

Well now,
It seems to me that if you are truly an excellent instuctor, it shouldn't
make a lot of difference what you're flying to teach in.
That is, if you are teaching people to fly rather than just operate a
perticular kind of aircraft. There is something to learn from every flight
no matter what it is in. I am not comfortable in the back seat of a 2-33
anymore and I hven't taught in many years, but I admire the 2-33 greatly for
what it is and what it does. I've not done any x-c in one but I know people
who have and it's true that they are a pain to de rig in an off field
landing but so what. They do the job they were designed for admirably IMHO.
As for retarding the sport, how many glider pilots would there be now if it
weren't for the ready availibility of a functional 2-33? We have two of them
in our club and they are rarely unflyable: our Twin Astir has been down for
maintenance over six months in the preceding year, and it's not a delicate
machine.
"Course I'm not selling anything and I don't have the opinion that only a
european glider is worthy of my effort to fly it.
Cheers!

"Robertmudd1u" wrote in message
...
When you find a better trainer than the 2-33 for comparable money, let
everybody know.

Generally speaking you get what you pay for. Hence, the low price for
2-33s

If there was a better alternative, people who have been in the business
for
decades and know the ropes, would be using it instead of the 2-33.

They are, everywhere but in one of the world's most advanced country, the
USA.


Do you feel the 2-33 has caused your progress in soaring to be less than
it
would have been if you had learned in something else,...

As a CFIG for over 30 years and with time in almost every model of trainer
produced in that time span, I have to answer "yes" to this question. The
2-33s
not only retards the individual progress but also the progress of the
sport in
general.

Robert Mudd