Canada's CH-148 Cyclone (news and updates)

Well after a quarter century of deals, cancelations much frustration and misspent money the CH-148 Cyclone has achieved its first flight. The first flight took place at the florida plant on Nov 15 2008 with two Sikorsky test pilots at the controls. The road to this flight has not only been bumpy its been hell. Anyways enjoy the image for a second.



Here is just a couple things the people from Sikorsky where willing to say.

"The aircraft performed beautifully, easily achieving each manoeuvre attempted," says Sikorsky programme manager Dan Hunter, describing the first flight success as "a huge milestone".....
“We are continuing to hold discussions with the Canadian government in an effort to get the aircraft fielded as quickly as possible,” it says. “Until we have concluded those discussions, commenting on the delivery schedule and other details would be premature.”

Staff from CFB Shearwater though are saying that the Cyclones wont begin arriving till 2010. So at least we are getting straight answers from our military in this case. Recently Peter MacKay the Defense minister did comment and also say it would be in 2010. This seems to be a number of months earlier then a rumored delay was to push back the deadline. But the new rumor is that the delivery date will come at an added cost. Which sounds just great when the company and government have delayed this program that is already 5 years old.





The Cyclone has been running into issues with many things in its development including a underpowered engine that has now had to be swapped out with a larger more heavy engine that also will have little commonality with the already in service CH-149 Cormorants. Also CofG issue have forced Sikorsky to add a 40cm stretch to the fuselage as a fix. Sure its added the benefit of a larger cabin size and door but it can still be viewed as what it is.. a delay. A delay that for some reason Sikorsky now thinks that they can charge us for in order to get the choppers in a reasonable timeframe so as to finally retire the infamous SeaKings.

[edit on 18-11-2008 by Canada_EH]

I'm surprised Canada would buy from an American helicopter manufacturer rather than an EU one. Wonder why that is?