The lead time for a new Robinson R66 turbine has grown to six months from order.  Latest information indicates that the delivery dates for a current order on each of Robinson’s four production lines are as follows

R22 – Early November 2014
Raven I – Late November 2014
Raven II – Mid December 2014
R66 – Late January 2015

The R66 backlog has no doubt been helped by the EASA certification of the type, although from investigation by HeliHub.com the orders have not been flooding in at quite the rate that was expected.  The current production rates are seeing one R22, four R44s and two R66s  off the line each week, suggesting a backlog of around 50 R66s, taking into account next week’s annual factory shut-down.

In turn, that translates to an annual production of around 100, a significant reduction on the 192 produced in 2013 and 191 the previous year.  We wonder whether Bell’s 505 JRX is having an effect on R66 sales?

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com