Original Message

The accident had little to do with the Papillons decision to cut the Whisperjet program. After the accident, which was completely avoidable, we developed a complete training and support program to reintroduce the aircraft to their fleet, and did so with several airframes. The TSE-331 did a fine job once the aircraft was inflight, it just didn't like hovering before takeoff...it preferred to roll off the ground. We really needed about 300' of asphalt and the ship would lift a house. If not, you're always on the edge of temperature limits. As for the FL guys, the Vertical Aviation folks did a fine job with the ship.

The primary issue was poor training. In the accident, the pilot flew the aircraft to the ground at 60 knots. This ship autorotative profile calls for 35mph which produces 900fpm. For an aircraft with a 53' rotor diameter, it was impressively agile. I firmly believe if they would have let us continue testing, the S-55QT could eliminate its H/V curve. Also, other than time limits on the blades, the tail rotor was not an issue in the Canyon.