How The Robinson R66 Became The Most Popular Dangerous Helicopter

The Robinson R66 is the latest member of the famed Robinson Helicopter dynasty which began with the Robinson R22 in 1979. Much like the R22, the R66 has proved extremely popular, selling over 1,100 times to date.

Designed to be their first turbine-powered helicopter (their previous helicopters were piston-powered), the R66 has allowed Robinson Helicopter to take on giants the likes of Eurocopter, Sikorsky and Bell. And not only hold their own, but beat them too!

Pre-Robinson R66

In 1973, Frank D. Robinson, a former helicopter engineer for Cessna, McCulloch Aircraft and Bell Helicopters, resigned his position at Hughes Helicopters to pursue his dream of starting his own helicopter manufacturing company.

Starting up Robinson Helicopter from his home office that same year, it took him two years to design and build the first Robinson R22 prototype, which he flew personally on its first flight in August 1975.

Eventually putting the R22 into mass production, it soon proved quite popular. Indeed, it’s popular that it has sold nearly 5,000 times to date and has become the fourth most popular civilian helicopter ever built!

Hoping to build on the success of the R22, Robinson Helicopter began examining the market, coming to the conclusion that there was enough demand for a four-seat helicopter derived from the R22.

With this information in hand, Robinson Helicopter President and Chairman Frank D. Robinson personally led development of what would become the Robinson R44, which first flew on March 31 1990.

Much like the R22 it was intended to replace, the similarly R44 proved to be quite successful, having sold over 6,500 times to date, to become the world’s most popular general aviation helicopter.

Yet, this success didn’t go unnoticed.

Hoping to take a part of the market for themselves, helicopter industry giants Eurocopter and Bell Helicopter began to produce new turbine-powered helicopters such as the EC120 and newer variants of the Bell 206, which could outperform the piston-powered R44.

Development

Understandably, Robinson Helicopter weren’t going to let this go without at least putting up a fight.

Taking the R44’s design as a basis, Robinson Helicopter President and Chairman Frank D. Robinson once again led a team to develop a turbine-powered R44 that was cheaper to operate and could carry more people than its competition.

Focusing heavily on replacing the R44’s piston Lycoming O-540 engine with the more powerful Rolls-Royce RR330 turbine engine, the Robinson design team had to redesign large aspects of the R44’s fuel intake and exhaust systems.

Operational History

General Aviation

VIP Transport

Much like the R22 and R44 it was designed to replace, the R66 was expressly designed by Robinson to be a general aviation helicopter. However, recent years have seen several buyers acquire the helicopter for use as a VIP transport.

Here, the relatively low operating costs and overall reliability of the R66 has appealed particularly to high net worth individuals (such as celebrities) as well as corporations.

For high net worth individuals, the R66 is used as a way to get around in style. Though they may have a garage full of supercars and a private jet or two, the R66 is the perfect blend of practical, elegance and extravagance!

In many cases, the helicopter also serves as an extension of their brand and is used to generate media attention, just like their private jet is.

By the same token, corporations both large and small have acquired the helicopter to transport their C-Suite level executives or even the owner (assuming they aren’t a C-Suite executive) to and from the office, to avoid traffic.

Primarily, those R66s in corporate use are used to transport executive between their house(s) and the office and/or between home/the office and the airport where the company jet is stored.

Whilst by no means the only corporate operator of the R66, perhaps the most important are Frank D. Robinson and Robinson Helicopter (as in, the company who build the R66) who use it in lieu of a corporate jet, which is much more expensive to operate.

For long-haul and/or international routes, the company uses Frank D. Robinson’s boat, which is similarly less expensive to operate than a Gulfstream or Bombardier-produced long-range private jet or something similar.

Trainer

One of Robinson’s guiding principals has been to keep their helicopters incredibly simple. Indeed, this has been one of the main reasons why both the R22 and R44 have proven so successful.

In keeping with this philosophy, Robinson kept the R66’s design as simple as possible. In turn, this make the helicopter incredibly easy to operate, regardless of skill level.

Seeing this,

Government

Proving popular with several private and corporate operators, several government operators began acquiring the Robinson R66 for various roles.

Primarily, the R66 is used by the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (otherwise known as the BNPB) who have operated one R66 since 2015.

Here, the R66 is used in a range of duties such as VIP transport and fundraising (such as being flown at airshows or used in commercials).

Its main role, however, is being used as an early warning system. Faster and more practical than most land vehicles, especially given Indonesia’s archipelagic nature, the R66 can travel from its base in Jakarta to the areas that will be devastated by a natural disaster.

From here, BNPB employees can warn locals to either get away from the area, or help them reinforce the area before the disaster strikes, as to lower the loss of human life.

Beyond this, the R66 has also become popular with air ambulance operators, who’ve acquired the R66 as a pediatric medevac helicopter.

Although not the only operator, the principal pediatric medevac operator is the Fundacion Cardiovascular de Colombia (FCV) in Santander, Bucaramanga, Colombia, who have operated the helicopter since 2013.

Serving alongside the foundation’s Learjet 31 and Westwind 1124, the Robinson R66 is used by doctors to reach patients in remote areas, and transport them back to the hospital for emergency surgery, faster than any land ambulance could.

Police

Prior to the R66’s introduction, both the R22 and R44 had previously served as police helicopters, where their low operating costs and extremely small size (even for a helicopter) made them perfect for city-based police departments.

As such, it wasn’t long until police operators began demanding a police helicopter variant of the Robinson R66 to either replace their pre-existing R22/R44 fleet, or complement their pre-existing aerial fleet.

Seeing the market for it, Robinson Helicopter quickly designed a police variant of the R66 with a thermal imaging camera, PA system and search light to make it one of the most effective law enforcement helicopters currently on the market.

Used as a traditional police helicopter, the R66 is used by police departments to continuously pursue criminals in environments where land-based police vehicles can’t, eg. through the middle of town or going off-road in the countryside.

This allows them to maintain their pursuit without having to worry about excessive property damage (eg. police cars ramming parked cars to get through) or needless endangerment of officer’s and the public’s life.

It also gives them an additional way to surveil criminals in ways they may not necessarily account for.

Although primarily used as a traditional police helicopter, recent years have highlighted several examples where the R66 has been used by police operators as a VIP aircraft, either transporting high-ranking city officials or high-ranking police officers.

Whilst by no means an exhaustive list, current police operators of the R66 include the Fontana Police Department in California (who acquired theirs in 2012) and the Polk County Sheriffs Department in Florida (who acquired theirs in April 2021).

News

The rise of the internet and its associated e-media (blogs, podcasts, YouTube etc.) have all but killed the profits of traditional media outlets, namely local news stations.

Although this has led to arguably a greater choice in the media people consume (such as us, who probably wouldn’t exist if the internet didn’t exist), it has largely led to the death of the news helicopter.

Despite this, the largest news stations, such as those who cover large cities like New York, Los Angeles and London, have remained relatively profitable – enough so that many of them can continue to operate news helicopters.

Many previously operated news variants of the R22 and/or the R44 and were nearing the end of their service life. Not wanting these news stations to turn elsewhere for their news helicopter, Robinson soon designed and released the R66 Newscopter in July 2017.

A basic R66, Robinson engineers have installed a powerful Ikegami HDL-F3000 at the base of the newscopter’s nose, as well as additional stabilizers, a microwave transmitter (to send what they record back to the station) and monitors inside the cabin.

This latter adjustment allows the news crews inside the cabin to adjust the camera’s angle mid-flight, or instruct the pilot how to position the R66 for a better shot.

Other than news stations, the newscopter is also designed to appeal to movie studios, as the low operational costs of the R66 make it cheap enough to film aerial scenes for movie and/or TV shows without cutting into the studio’s profits too heavily.

Air Tour

Price

When Frank D. Robinson started designing the R22, he wanted to create a helicopter that was superior to its competitors, whilst also being cheaper.

Though it wasn’t easy, when the R22 was introduced in 1979, it was the cheapest factory-produced (eg. not kit-built) helicopter on the market by far. Despite its own set of problems, this continued for the R44 too. And also the R66.

Currently, a brand new Robinson R22 costs around $945,000 to acquire directly from Robinson Helicopter.

However, the R66 has been on the market for over a decade, meaning that there are several used examples up for sale on the secondary market.

On the cheaper end, a 2011, 2012 or 2013 R66 with several thousand hours on the fuselage and over a thousand landings, will cost you anywhere from $400,000 on the low-end, to around $525,000 depending on age, time and the number of landings.

Likewise, on the more expensive end, a virtually brand new R66 (eg. from the last two years or so) with very few hours and landings, will set you back anywhere from $875,000 to $945,000 depending on age, number of hours and landings.

Some people are even selling early access to R66s (to be built later in the year, or next year) for upwards of $1 million!

In terms of cost to operate, the R66 is similarly quite cheap, costing only $397 per hour according to Robinson Helicopter (however, this assumes that you are flying the R66 for 500 hours per year).

Specifications

Specifications	Robinson R66
Length	29 ft 6 in (8.99 m)
Fuselage Width	4 ft 10 in (1.47 m)
Main Rotor Diameter	33 ft (10 m)
Height	11 ft 5 in (3.48 m)
Crew	2
Passengers	4 (or 1,200 lb/540 kg of external cargo)
Cruise Speed	110 kn (130 mph; 200 km/h)
Range	350 nmi (400 mi; 650 km)
Service Ceiling	14,000 ft (4,300 m)

Why Has The Robinson R66 Been so Successful?

Having been on the market for over a decade, Robinson Helicopter have built over 1,100 R66s, which have flown over a combined 200,000 hours. By comparison, the R66’s competitors have barely sold that combined!

So this begs the question, why is it so success?

Perhaps the largest contributor to the R66’s success is its costs.

Not only is it cheaper to acquire than most of its competitors, the R66 is also much cheaper to operate, owing largely to its incredibly fuel-efficient Rolls-Royce RR330, which is also incredibly easy (and thus cheap) to maintain.

Then there’s also the fact that compared to its main competitors, the R66 outclasses it in almost every regard: speed, range, capacity. You name it, the R66 outclasses its competitors every single time.

Alone, these two factors are enough to be major selling points for any aircraft. Combined, it means that anyone looking to buy a light or general aviation helicopter is sure to choose the Robinson R66!

Beyond outclassing its competitors and being cheaper to operate, the R66 is also easier to control. Whilst often overlooked by non-pilots, the R66’s ease of control appeals to pilots as increased ease of control tends to lead to fewer pilot errors, and thus, crashes.

Something else you probably hadn’t thought about was progression.

Much like other aircraft manufacturers do, Robinson Helicopter market the R66 as the successor R44 (much like the R44 was to the R22), meaning that when it comes to replacing the R44, most operators simply look to the R66 as the replacement.

But it’s not just some marketing ploy by Robinson. It’s actually carefully curated to make it so that pilots who’ve previously flown the R44 only require minimal training before they certify on the larger R66.

This makes it cheaper for operators to simply upgrade to the R66 than buy a helicopter from Eurocopter (Airbus Helicopters), Bell or someone similar. This all makes it far more popular than it probably would be otherwise.

How Safe is The Robinson R66?

At least in terms of safety, Robinson Helicopter has a mixed reputation.

The R22, whilst crude, was incredibly safe by the standards of its time whilst the R44 has come under increasing levels of scrutiny in recent years due to regulators finding several structural defects.

Though Robinson has fixed these defects, their reputation has been tainted considerably, with many calling them “The Most Dangerous Helicopter Manufacturer in the World” according to some.

So this begs the question, how safe is the Robinson R66?

On the surface of things, the R66 appears to be relatively safe, perhaps leaning slightly to the more dangerous aspect. Of the over 1,100 R66s produced to date, a total of 58 have been involved in an aviation-related incident of some sort, resulting in 43 fatalities.

Whilst this is still 43 fatalities too many, to put this in terms of numbers, 5.27% of all R66s produced to date have been involved in a crash of some sort. For reference, the 747, generally accepted as one of the safest airliners in the world, sits at 4%.

Looking at the accident reports, most have been caused by your usual causes: pilot error, poor maintenance, bad weather etc.

However, all is not as it seems. On January 9 2020, experienced pilot and businessman Mark Croce, along with his business partner Michael Capriotto, took flight on their Robinson R66, which they’d acquired brand new in February 2019.

The flight ended in tragedy, as the helicopter broke apart mid-flight and crashed, killing both Croce and Capriotto. The family of the victims filed a wrongful death suit against Robinson Helicopter after evidence suggested mast-bumping caused the mid-flight breakup.

Re-examining the R66’s previous crashes reveals that this has happened before, leading to a bulk of the R66’s fatalities. The wrongful death suit is still currently being fought in court.

Legacy

Although the Robinson R66 has only been around for 10 years, with most of the R66s produced to date still being in service, the helicopter is beginning to form a legacy that’s arguably bigger and more important than the R22 and R44’s combined!

Robinson Helicopter

When Robinson introduced the R22 in 1979, none of the manufacturers really took notice. Yet, with its success, not only did the R22 receive tons of press coverage, but so did Robinson Helicopter and its founder, Frank D. Robinson.

Despite its success, many critics claimed that Robinson’s success was merely beginner’s luck, rather than the R22 being a great helicopter.

However, the introduction of the R44 in 1993 and its subsequent success, proved these critics wrong. Robinson Helicopter was here to stay. Even despite this, soon critics refused to see the light.

The introduction and later success of the R66, however, made sure that these critics were silenced. Indeed, many were even laughed at for what many viewed as hilarious misjudgments on the critics’ part!

On an unrelated note, the success of the R66 increased the value of Robinson Helicopter so much so that its owner – Frank D. Robinson is worth somewhere between $250 and $300 million depending on the source.

Future Helicopters

Coming onto the market in 2011, Robinson’s competitors (namely Bell Helicopters) watched the R66 carefully. Evaluating the helicopter from afar, they began to work on a brand new helicopter to directly compete with the R66.

At Bell, this led to the development of the Bell 505 JetRanger X, a “clean sheet” helicopter incorporating certain elements of the Bell 206. Unveiled at the 2013 Paris Airshow, the JetRanger X was marketed as the higher-end alternative to the R66.

Despite its worse specs and higher price, the Bell 505 has proven quite successful, selling over 200 times since its introduction in 2017.

Whilst Bell gets all the credit, Sikorsky (through Schweizer Aircraft which it owned at the time) introduced the S-434 in 2008 in an attempt to preemptively take over the market Robinson hoped the R66 would dominate.

Even though it was acquired by big names like the Saudi Ministry of the Interior, the S-434 had a relatively low production run because of the R66’s introduction and ceased in 2015. This marks the last civilian helicopter produced by the company to date.

What do you think of the Robinson R66? Tell me in the comments!

Featured image courtesy of Alec Wilson via Flickr.