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Used Aircraft Guide

Used Aircraft Guide: Robinson R44

Pilots looking for a used aircraft usually have a mission in mind: Carry a specific payload over a certain distance in a minimum amount of time. And if you need to get to and from remote locations while mixing it up at nearby Big City International, you might have overlooked the helicopter. Until the early 1990s, anyone needing a personal helicopter configuredhad to go the turbine route; there were no piston-powered four-passenger helicopters. That changed in late 1992 when the Robinson Helicopter Company obtained FAA certification of its R44, a four-place rotorcraft powered by a Lycoming piston engine. While offerings from Enstrom, Schweizer, Brantley and even the venerable Bell 47 have proven popular, none of them seat more than a pilot and two passengers at most. Robinsons R44, on the other hand, takes the standard two-plus-two seating configuration of the a personal airplane and gives it a vertical takeoff and landing capability. The result is a hugely popular four-seat single-Robinson sold 664 copies of the R44 in 2007-that just happens to have a rotary wing.

Aviation Consumer Staff
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Pilots looking for a used aircraft usually have a mission in mind: Carry a specific payload over a certain distance in a minimum amount of time. And if you need to get to and from remote locations while mixing it up at nearby Big City International, you might have overlooked the helicopter.

Until the early 1990s, anyone needing a personal helicopter configuredhad to go the turbine route; there were no piston-powered four-passenger helicopters. That

Robinson R44

changed in late 1992 when the Robinson Helicopter Company obtained FAA certification of its R44, a four-place rotorcraft powered by a Lycoming piston engine.

While offerings from Enstrom, Schweizer, Brantley and even the venerable Bell 47 have proven popular, none of them seat more than a pilot and two passengers at most. Robinsons R44, on the other hand, takes the standard two-plus-two seating configuration of the a personal airplane and gives it a vertical takeoff and landing capability. The result is a hugely popular four-seat single-Robinson sold 664 copies of the R44 in 2007-that just happens to have a rotary wing.

History

Frank Robinsons dream of a small, low-cost helicopter convinced him to resign from the Hughes Helicopter Company in 1973 and found the Robinson Helicopter Company (RHC). The two-place R22 quickly became the worlds top selling civil helicopter and turned Robinson into what many think of as the “Henry Ford of helicopters.”

But the R22 hasnt been without its rough spots. Although RHC didnt intend it to be one of the worlds most popular trainers, thats what it soon became. The R22 was tarnished by a number of accidents and the light-weight rotor system resulted in little inertia, increasing the likelihood of low rotor RPM, blade stalls and fuselage strikes. Also, the rotor design itself, being of the semi-rigid type, where the rotors are free to tilt with respect to the main rotor shaft, allows the blades to see-saw or flap together. Its larger brother, the R44 Raven, didnt come along until 1992, but it inherited some of the R22s DNA, including a heavier but still relatively lightweight semi-rigid main rotor. In the mid-1980s, RHC began developing the four-seat R44 Raven. Its FAA certification was obtained in late 1992, and deliveries began in 1993. By early 2001, more than 1000 R44 helicopters had been delivered

Aviation Consumer Staff