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The real issue (IMHO) is highlighted in the article: >All the helicopters were produced without the necessary permits and documents of origin for the parts and
by na85 6y ago
The real issue (IMHO) is highlighted in the article:
>All the helicopters were produced without the necessary permits and documents of origin for the parts and equipment used.
In aerospace it's common to speak of certificates of conformance, which is a legal attestation from the manufacturer that the part is of genuine origin and complies with the specification from the aircraft's type design. The manufacturer is periodically audited/assessed for their quality control practices and parts are routinely tested to ensure they are airworthy.
The issue here, as per the above quote, is that they were probably using bootleg parts from random Chinese suppliers, which might be no big deal but might also have not been heat treated properly, for example, in order to save manufacturing cost.
If parts aren't compliant with the spec you can have structural failures in flight which is of course no bueno.
So yes, these are probably "real" Kamovs in the sense that they're probably built from real Kamov blueprints, but what many people outside the industry don't realize is that aerospace design and manufacturing encompasses much more than the blueprint. The whole program from the drawing board to the assembly line to the in-service maintenance work has to be a cohesive whole in order to produce an airworthy product.
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y agoIn practice though, that’s only a real issue if the wrong people die in a crash as a result of non-compliant parts.
- ashtonkem 6y agoDepends on your jurisdiction. The FAA can be a real stickler about things having the right paperwork.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- IfOnlyYouKnew 6y agoBullshit populist conspiracy drivel. Any plane or helicopter crash is big news and gets scrutinized quite extensively.
- heelix 6y agoMy brother-in-law does fire/crop dusting with a turbine helicopter. My mentality of what an airplane annual should look like is profoundly different then what he considers 'normal maintenance' on what he uses for work. Every single part of one of those machines has a ridiculously short time to live. I've heard rumors that parts past their time to live would ship to less rigorous countries. Likely a bunch of EOL parts in the mix too.
- cameldrv 6y agoAircraft parts also generally have tighter engineering margins (strength etc) than other engineered products because there's a huge need to keep weight to a minimum. If they're not built according to the design, as you say, no bueno.
- LilBytes 6y agoI certainly wouldn't my helicopters Jesus nut [1] to be purchased and procured through Alibaba, for sure. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_nut https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_nut
- buran77 6y ago> have tighter engineering margins But still have to cover very wide operational margins (they are overspecced) because many failures are catastrophic so they can't run on the edge of failing all the time.