Hill Says Its Turbine Helicopter Engine Will Cost Less Than 100K | Aviation International News

HAI Convention News 2023

Hill Says Its Turbine Helicopter Engine Will Cost Less Than 100K

Hill Helicopters is developing its own turbine engine for its HX50 and HC50 aircraft.

By Mark Huber • Contributor

March 5, 2023

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 the 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 twenty-year-old Hill worked three jobs to save the $10,000 he needed to come to Long Beach from the UK and get his helicopter rating 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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