MD 902 Explorer
Despite a challenging lineage, this is a great light twin-engine helicopter
By Mark Huber - February 1, 2009
More than 20 years after it was conceived, the MD 902 Explorer is coming into its own as a fast and comfortable light twin-engine turbine helicopter that performs exceptionally well in hot temperatures and high altitudes.
Up front, you’ll find room for two pilots, although the 902 can be flown easily and safely by one. In back, in VIP configuration, there is space for four to six passengers and a 48-cubic-foot luggage hold. Thanks in part to MD Helicopters’ proprietary No Tail Rotor (Notar) technology, the $5.875 million 902 can outperform many “newer” designs, is quieter and has good operating economics.
Originally conceived for the medevac and law-enforcement markets, the model is growing in popularity as an executive transport. Since 1998, more than 100 Explorers have been built and production is ramping up anew, with deliveries of 25 scheduled for this year, up from about a dozen in 2008.
These are modest numbers compared with those from Eurocopter and Bell Helicopter, but they’re impressive in light of MD Helicopters’ history. You see, in the summer of 2005, the company had virtually been left for dead.
The European consortium that owned MD then had hopelessly undercapitalized it. Production of all models ground to a stop. Customers were fed up with product non-support, suppliers and employees were unpaid and the bankers were doing a carrion hover above the corpse, getting ready to sell off the parts and pieces. Over four decades, a diverse and distinguished ownership chain–from billionaire/aviator Howard Hughes to McDonnell Douglas to Boeing–had been unable or unwilling to make a go of the Mesa, Ariz.-based helicopter manufacturer, despite great designs and enormous market opportunities. This was a company that seemingly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory at every turn.
During the 1960s, MD, then called Hughes Helicopters, won a U.S. Army contract for hundreds of light scout and attack helicopters for the Vietnam War. However, costs bloated, the promised delivery schedule slid deeply into fiction and the Army canceled the deal, giving the contract instead to Bell. That helped ensure Bell’s prosperity for decades. The civilian variants of that Bell OH-58 replacement Army helicopter, known as JetRangers, remain the world’s most ubiquitous turbine helicopters today.
Then in 1987, when McDonnell Douglas owned MD, the company embarked on a revolutionary, clean-sheet-of-paper design called the Explorer. It was first aimed primarily at European markets, where noise restrictions are stricter than in the U.S. and aircraft must have two engines to operate at night in instrument conditions. (More than 30 Explorers are now based there, primarily in the United Kingdom and Germany.)
The design features extensive use of composites; a quiet, bearingless, five-bladed main rotor set up “walk under” high so patients and passengers can “hot load” with the rotor spinning; and a trapezoid-shaped door under the tail boom for fast stretcher loading. Dual oversized sliding side doors make passenger entry and egress quick and easy. The tall, 130-cubic-foot cabin ameliorates claustrophobia and the low-slung instrument panel and panoramic windshield give pilots a superior view. In addition, the helicopter has a comparatively small footprint for a light twin, allowing it to be easily and safely maneuvered into and out of tight landing spots and parked in smaller hangars than some of its contemporaries. The Explorer also boasts integrated engine and systems monitoring instruments that were considered extremely advanced for their time.
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