It is a fact: Helicopter manufacturers like producing large helicopters. On the whole, larger aircraft make more money, fewer have to be produced to register a decent return, and demand for them is unlikely to disappear given the need for oil and gas support helicopters, not to mention military variants that carry troops or hunt submarines. But the current wave of commercial heavy helicopters produced in the West and in the 10-metric-ton-plus category are now at least 15 years old and are based on designs that date back to the 1960s or '70s. But there are signs that a new generation of heavy helicopters may now be beginning to creep onto the drawing board, particularly in Europe. Sikorsky's S-92 first flew back in 1998-yet the aircraft has its roots in the company's highly successful S-70 Black Hawk/Seahawk model, using many of the dynamic components from that aircraft.
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