Posted on 6/16/2007, 9:59:51 PM by DieHard the Hunter
Lack of self-belief and vision has cost Kiwi companies the chance to hitch their logos to the most advanced helicopter ever made.
That is the view of the man building the Alpine Wasp, an unmanned helicopter designed to rescue injured climbers at high altitudes in the Himalayas.
Trevor Rogers says his efforts to interest Kiwi corporates in the project have failed, except for support from Air New Zealand, while overseas companies are clamouring to be included.
A board member of the Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, Mr Rogers left last week to attend a UVSI meeting in Paris.
He expects to be wined and dined by executives from foreign companies interested in the project.
The engineer and former National MP owns the East Tamaki-based company TGR Helicopters, which makes aircraft and develops avionics for military and civilian use, including Bandit, Snark and Wolverine helicopters.
He says several months ago Emirates Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton told him, 'don't waste your time looking for backing in this country'.
"Grant told me to look overseas and events have proved him right - New Zealand may have many individuals who can innovate but there's also a huge clobbering machine here.
"I've ignored it most of my career but it's starting to grate. Some of the corporates we approached here didn't even have the decency to return calls."
Aviation Industry Association of New Zealand chief executive Irene King says his experience is typical of current difficulties in the research and development sector.
"Trevor is an inspirational figure in the aviation industry, who does not seem to have the word 'can't' in his vocabulary," says Ms King.
"When he flies to the top of Everest some marketers here may have to answer why they passed up the opportunity to be involved."
Mr Rogers' company specialises in long-range autonomous mission and flight systems, meaning helicopters that can be either flown by a ground operator or fly themselves using advanced electronics.
His engineers have almost completed the Alpine Wasp's carbon fibre and kevlar fuselage and detailed plans are unfolding to test the machine's alpine rescue work at Mt Cook later this year.
Meanwhile, the Everest Rescue Trust, which will operate the chopper, has begun to extend and build upon aid work in Nepal pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary. Mr Rogers says he and his wife Glenda developed the Alpine Wasp at their expense to donate to the trust, which will be partially self-funded.
After talks with the government of Nepal, he says he is closing in on a deal which will see climbers pay US$10,000 up front to insure themselves before climbing Everest.
This would allow the Wasp to respond at short notice, without having to fill out insurance company forms in advance of each rescue.
"Today I had an email from an aviation computer technology company developing anti-icing technology, which offered to help us in exchange for being mentioned in our list of sponsors.
"The Discovery Channel wants to do a 13-part documentary on the project and Alpine Wasp is on the front page of the latest issue of the magazine put out by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
"The Alpine Wasp will be the most sophisticated helicopter ever built, not only showing what Kiwi technology can achieve but also boosting the friendship this country has with Nepal."
It is to operate from a base in the town of Namche Bazar, located at 12,000-feet where conventional helicopters 'start to die'.
Spin-offs for the community include use of the medical clinic to be built in the town.
The trust will provide local employment to help build the clinic, hangar and other infrastructure required.
And Nepalese nationals will be brought to New Zealand to be trained in high-tech fields required to operate and repair the Alpine Wasp.
btt
Your people also invented bungee jumping and that roll-down-a-hill-in-a-sphere thing, which is also growing popularity. This is more useful and practical, though.....interesting.
It’s does sound neat. Add him to the list that includes Bert Munro.
If you don’t have a domestic aviation industry, it’s extremely difficult to build one from scratch. Foreign companies are a better bet to buy your technology and undertake the horrendously expensive development and testing costs. I bet there’s no domestic Kiwi auto company either.
“”Trevor is an inspirational figure in the aviation industry, who does not seem to have the word ‘can’t’ in his vocabulary,” says Ms King.”
.....which makes her VERY happy in the evening.
New Zealand? Is that near Melbourne?
Thailand?
Is there an Old Zealand?
That roll-down-the-hill-in-a-sphere thing. Sounds like it would be a way cheaper way to rescue trapped cllimbers.
> Is there an Old Zealand?
Yes there is. In Holland: it’s called “Zeeland”. I understand that New Zealand got its name by Abel Tasman, an early Dutch explorer. Somehow along the way the spelling got changed.
> New Zealand? Is that near Melbourne?
It’s in the same vicinity. Melbourne is in Australia, a couple thousand miles away. New Zealand is a couple of large islands next door to Australia, across the Tasman Sea.
> If you don’t have a domestic aviation industry, it’s extremely difficult to build one from scratch.
New Zealand has a very small but very good civil aviation industry, and a long tradition in flying. After all, Richard Pearse invented and flew the aeroplane before the Wright Brothers did.
> I bet there’s no domestic Kiwi auto company either.
Not for the mass market, no.
> Foreign companies are a better bet to buy your technology and undertake the horrendously expensive development and testing costs.
In NZ we are finding that heavy manufacturing in general tends to go that way. For many decades Fisher & Paykel made our whiteware (washing machines, dryers, fridges &tc) onshore as a Kiwi company. Good hi-quality stuff, marketed overseas by (I believe) Whirlpool. About a month ago they announced that all of this is going offshore, due to the cost of labor. Probably to Asia.
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