Hill Helicopters

Contains threads on equipment developed by the UK defence and aerospace industry, but not in service with the British Armed Forces.
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Timmymagic
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Hill Helicopters

Post by Timmymagic »

Thought I'd posted a thread on this ages ago...

Hill Helicopters, a UK start up, who appear to be making serious progress.

They're developing a 5 seat turbine powered helicopter, the HX-50, but also, unusually, developing their own GT to power it, the GT50.



https://www.hillhelicopters.com/



https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news ... 700-orders

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TheLoneRanger

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Re: Hill Helicopters

Post by TheLoneRanger »

Timmymagic wrote: 19 Aug 2023, 14:52 Thought I'd posted a thread on this ages ago...

Hill Helicopters, a UK start up, who appear to be making serious progress.

They're developing a 5 seat turbine powered helicopter, the HX-50, but also, unusually, developing their own GT to power it, the GT50.



https://www.hillhelicopters.com/



https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news ... 700-orders

Excellent - looks good - wishing them all the luck !

new guy
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Re: Hill Helicopters

Post by new guy »

Good luck to them and VA!

Timmymagic
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Re: Hill Helicopters

Post by Timmymagic »

I should add....if the price comes off as they claim (and to be clear new helicopter developers always claim that they will 'break the paradigm' with their pricing but rarely do...) then the MoD should buy a few...not for any combat role, but for the inevitable shuttling around of senior officers that goes on. No need to allocate a Wildcat or other expensive asset when a cheap, more comfortable platform is available...

new guy
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Re: Hill Helicopters

Post by new guy »

Timmymagic wrote: 19 Aug 2023, 20:17 I should add....if the price comes off as they claim (and to be clear new helicopter developers always claim that they will 'break the paradigm' with their pricing but rarely do...) then the MoD should buy a few...not for any combat role, but for the inevitable shuttling around of senior officers that goes on. No need to allocate a Wildcat or other expensive asset when a cheap, more comfortable platform is available...
under a mill is ridiculous.

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mr.fred
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Re: Hill Helicopters

Post by mr.fred »

While I'd love for a startup to achieve it's aims, I've only seen marketing spiel from this so far.
Looking at their recruitment page:
https://www.hillhelicopters.com/careers
There are a lot of roles that I'd expect to see filled already, if they had product rather than CAD models.
If they expect to be able to make cost savings vs other helicopters then they ought to say how. If it's kept secret then it's something simple, or at least something that others could copy. If it's something simple or easily reproducible, then it's likely to have been tried before and found wanting.
Skimming through the marketing bumpf, I'm drawing a lot of parallels with a recent submarine accident.

Little J
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Re: Hill Helicopters

Post by Little J »

They have a lot of interesting videos (including VLOG's), only watched a few so far, but I'm working my way through them :thumbup:

https://www.youtube.com/@HillHelicopters/videos

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mr.fred
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Re: Hill Helicopters

Post by mr.fred »

Little J wrote: 20 Aug 2023, 18:33 They have a lot of interesting videos (including VLOG's), only watched a few so far, but I'm working my way through them :thumbup:

https://www.youtube.com/@HillHelicopters/videos
Well, give us a summary when you're done.

Timmymagic
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Re: Hill Helicopters

Post by Timmymagic »

mr.fred wrote: 20 Aug 2023, 10:58 While I'd love for a startup to achieve it's aims, I've only seen marketing spiel from this so far.
Looking at their recruitment page:
https://www.hillhelicopters.com/careers
There are a lot of roles that I'd expect to see filled already, if they had product rather than CAD models.
If they expect to be able to make cost savings vs other helicopters then they ought to say how. If it's kept secret then it's something simple, or at least something that others could copy. If it's something simple or easily reproducible, then it's likely to have been tried before and found wanting.
Skimming through the marketing bumpf, I'm drawing a lot of parallels with a recent submarine accident.
The chap who owns them does have his own successful engineering consultancy already so he might have been using resource from there.

https://www.dynamiq-eng.co.uk/

But I think we've all seen lots of aviation start ups promising the world over the years...

Timmymagic
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Re: Hill Helicopters

Post by Timmymagic »

Looks promising...


new guy
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Re: Hill Helicopters

Post by new guy »

hill helicopters have a nice series on you-tube to.

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mr.fred
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Re: Hill Helicopters

Post by mr.fred »

Could this company shake up the GA sector in the same way SpaceX has disrupted the launch market?
Given the last two Starship launches, one hopes not.
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Timmymagic
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Re: Hill Helicopters

Post by Timmymagic »

If they can certify it and build it at that price....they'll sell a thousand +....best intentions etc...







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