Boeing Helicopters

Boeing Helicopters (now Boeing Rotorcraft Systems) is a US aircraft manufacturer, part of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. The factories are in Ridley Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, and Mesa, Arizona.

Background

Boeing Helicopters was created as Boeing Vertol when the Vertol Aircraft Corporation (formerly Piasecki Helicopter) company of Morton, Pennsylvania was acquired by Boeing in 1960; the Vertol name was an abbreviation for Vertical takeoff and landing. The company was responsible for the design and production of the CH-46 Sea Knight and the CH-47 Chinook. It became Boeing Helicopters in 1987, and adopted its current name later.

When Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas, the former Mesa, Arizona operations of Hughes Helicopters were merged into Boeing Helicopters. A year and a half later Boeing sold the civilian line of helicopters to MD Helicopter Holdings Inc., an indirect subsidiary of the Dutch company, RDM Holding Inc.

As of December 15, 2006 Columbia Helicopters, Inc of Aurora, Oregon has purchased the Type certificate of the Boeing Vertol 107-II [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Type Certificate Data Sheet No. 1H16
work =
publisher = Federal Aviation Administration
date = 2007-01-17
url = http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library%5CrgMakeModel.nsf/0/FA4E77BC4812A0258625726B00663586/$FILE/1H16.pdf
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accessdate = 2007-02-08] and Boeing Model 234 Commercial Chinook [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Type Certificate Data Sheet No. H9EA
work =
publisher = Federal Aviation Administration
date = 2007-01-17
url = http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library%5CrgMakeModel.nsf/0/84EBE8780BF584058625726B00657D0E/$FILE/H9EA.pdf
format = .pdf
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accessdate = 2007-02-08] from Boeing. Currently the company is seeking FAA issuance of a Production Certificate to produce parts with eventual issuance of a PC to produce aircraft.

Mass transit

For much of the 1970s, Boeing Vertol entered the railroad rolling stock market in an attempt to keep government-funded contracts in the wake of the Vietnam War. During this period, Boeing Vertol manufactured the Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit system for West Virginia University, the 2400 series Chicago 'L' cars for the Chicago Transit Authority, and the US Standard Light Rail Vehicle (marketed as the Boeing LRV). It was the last vehicle, an attempt at a standardized light rail vehicle promoted by the Urban Mass Transit Administration, that led to the company's ending rail production due to a myriad of problems which cost Boeing and the vehicle's two buyers (authorities in Boston and San Francisco) millions and led to premature retirements of the vehicles.

Unlike the LRV failure, however, the company's subway car manufacturing program was relatively successful. By the late 1990s, their cars were still in use after more than twenty years. Among the reasons why the company left the subway business was that their competitors may have underbid on a key contract and the post-Vietnam War military build up provided the company with far more lucrative military contracts.

Boeing Vertol products

Rotorcraft

* Boeing Vertol 107-II
* CH-46 Sea Knight
* CH-113 Labrador
* CH-47 Chinook
* Boeing Model 234 Commercial Chinook
* Boeing Model 360 (an all composite, private venture, technology demonstrator)
* V-22 Osprey (built as a teaming arrangement with Bell Helicopter Textron)
* AH-64 Apache
* Boeing Vertol YUH-61
* Boeing Vertol XCH-62

Rail

* US Standard Light Rail Vehicle (aka the Boeing LRV)
* Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit
* Boeing Vertol 2400 series Rapid Transit Car - Chicago 'L' cars

Further reading

For more details about the company's mass transit projects, see: Jonathan M. Feldman, “The Conversion of Defense Engineers’ Skills: Explaining Success and Failure Through Customer-Based Learning, Teaming and Managerial Integration.” Chapter 18 in The Defense Industry in the Post-Cold War Era: Corporate Strategy and Public Policy Perspectives, Gerald I. Susman and Sean O'Keefe, eds. Oxford: Elsevier Science, 1998: 281-318.

References

ee also

* McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems

External links

* [http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/rotorcraft/index.html Boeing IDS Rotorcraft Systems division official site]