Engines
CEO Hill Says Turbine Engine for HX50 To Cost Under $100k
Hill Helicopters is taking on the ambitious task of developing its own turbine engine for the HX50 helicopter.
Hill Helicopters CEO Jason Hill
Hill Helicopters CEO Jason Hill says the unit cost of its GT50 turbine engine will be less than $100,000. (Photo: Hill Helicopters)

Hill Helicopters CEO Jason Hill says he is completely convinced that he can build the GT50 turbine engine for his new HX50 helicopter for less than a price of a new Lycoming IO-540 six-cylinder piston aviation engine, even for less than $100,000 each. And where did he get this ambitious idea? In part, from the late Frank Robinson.

A quarter century ago, then 20-year-old Hill worked three jobs to save the $10,000 he needed to come to Long Beach, California, from the UK and get his helicopter license in a Robinson R22 over the course of six weeks. While in California, he arranged to meet Robinson at the company factory in Torrance. Hill, then an aeronautical engineering student, held the dream of building his own production helicopter and he wanted to talk to someone who had actually done it.

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