I'll be curious if the TH-119/TH-73 has "solved" the 100-hour tail-paddle inspection. That will be fun.
What is a ”tail paddle” and what is the inspection about?
I suspect this was all thought though thoroughly. We need Leonardo as part of the industrial base for vertical flight - this was a smart choice now in hindsight.
A 2P from my HAC cruise is the lead on this - great guy - and they hired a bunch of Navy TPS grad helo folks to deliver the offering. Culturally Leonardo is very aligned to CNATRA and NAVAIR while at the same time pushing the boundaries to improve the training experience. I’ve heard the draft syllabus will have SNA’s flying from either seat and real emphasis on PF/PM type CRM.
Also heard the aircraft did extremely well in power off landing regime on turf and pavement.
This isn’t about any one company losing - Bell has plenty of work, so does Airbus. Army is doubling don on UH-72/H145 as primary training platform.
Also as an anecdote of the pilot shortage, URS in Fort Rucker is hiring non-military helo CFI’s to teach Army primary training - they are unable to recruit qualified military trained folks (probably to all the RTP programs).
Good times.