MBB Bo 105 & 106

[AS.12]

Just a quick note, stumbled across some info this morning.

The stretched 105CS always seemed a bit of an oddity to me, appeared in the MBB catalogue without any fanfare.  Turns-out that the stretch was developed between Boeing Vertol and Carson Helicopters of Perkasie, PA as the 105 Executaire. First flew from Carson's facility on 18 March 1975.

In addition to the 10-inch stretch the rear sliding doors were replaced by hinged doors and a small supplemental window was added on each side.  All the changes were available as a retrofit kit for existing 105s, costing around $20,000 inluding work.

Boeing Vertol had bought 54 'plain' 105s from MBB as the US distributor of the model.  For a while the 105 Executaire was advertised alongside the Model 179 ( based on the losing UTTAS design ) as the TwinJet Family.

Not sure yet now the stretch flowed back to MBB, whether they built it in on the production line or applied kits.

[Rick Lowe]

I remember seeing ads from MBB in the International Defence Review magazine and that was one of the options featured...

I enlarged one of those to use as plans to stretch the Airfix kit, back in the day... I really should finish it some decade or other...