Air Transportation: January 28, 2001

Archives

Despite, or perhaps because of, the problems with getting the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft into production, the US Marines have decided to refurbish their aging helicopter fleet. The marines cannot afford new helicopters. So they will begin overhauling their CF-53E heavy lift choppers to like new condition. This will cost $21 million per helicopter. To buy new helicopters would cost four times as much. The army, navy and air force have also seen the future, and it's a refurb world. This is especially true with helicopters, and all the services are investing heavily in rebuilding what they have rather than trying to pry money out of Congress for spiffy, and very expensive, new designs. So the problems with the V-22 may have a silver lining. It's dangerous (all those crashes during testing), embarrassing (all those crashes again) and expensive to buy new high performance during peacetime. But rebuilding old stuff saves you money and garners some good press in the bargain. 

 


Article Archive

Air Transportation: Current 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 1999 


X

ad
0
20

Help Keep Us Soaring

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling. We need your help in reversing that trend. We would like to add 20 new subscribers this month.

Each month we count on your subscriptions or contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage. A contribution is not a donation that you can deduct at tax time, but a form of crowdfunding. We store none of your information when you contribute..
Subscribe   Contribute   Close