Eurocopter buys IAR ?
After flirting around with Bell Helicopters for years and after trying their best to play with the guys from Bell, IAR turns its nose now towards Eurocopter

I don't understand this silly 180° turn of options, but nor does anybody with a bit of economical and military knowledge, so then I don't have to worry.
I don't know who came up with this silly idea, but i bet it was one of the "turn to Europe" orders from Bucharest. The Americans came to Romania and offered to IAR the production of 96 AH1RO Dracula attack helicopters - more advanced than AH1W SuperCobra and made under licence IN Romania and WITH a Romanian indicative "RO" which the US have not offered to any "similar" countries as Romania with which the US has better relationships. When they went to Poland to PZL, PZL agreed to make or Poland to buy straight from US only AH1W SuperCobras... No AH1PO, no further advancements, nothing. But of course, once a romanian - always a romanian, so not even this time, the blind people from Bucharest didn't saw this huge opportunity, and flush it off the toillet, after passing the americans year by year with stupid excuses and anti-Dracula ellection slogans. If there's one thing for which everybody who candidates for this year's ellection agrees, that's the killing of the Dracula program. Bits me why everybody is trying to kill the army...
If they would have made 96 Draculas at IAR, not even 1 worker would have been fired anymore. IAR would have made a lot of money. The State would have made a lot of money from taxing those things, because they tax everything in Romania, even the nomber of chairs one gets to a market place. Then, Turkey already agreed to buy Draculas from Romania. By doing so, Romania and IAR would have won a competition against countries like Russia, Italy, Israel, France, Germany, UK and US and against companies like GEC Marconi, Agusta, Kamov, Mil, Bell, Sikorsky and Eurocopter. Further on, like this wasn't enough, Turkey's usage of Draculas in live combat against the Kurds would have segnificantly improved the image of the helicopter around the world, and orders would have flowned in. But nooo, the romanians don't want to see their work being done, then want to get even worse because this is the way they like, so after flushing the americans for years, and after getting them to sign more and more pathetic contracts, and getting in a point where actually Bell didn't won almoust nothing after all this, they decided to tell Bell to "go home" and turned around to "Mr Eurocopter". Now I don't know what are they planning to build now at IAR - Tigre's ?? That makes me laugh. That's like building Comanches at a factory which is still in the medeval ages. No upgrading, firing of personnel, huge owns to the State and to private suppliers - this is what IAR is today and it will only get worse. The Romanians just flushed away the last chance to save IAR - the once proud romanian aircraft manufacturer, just like how they did it with everything else. This kind of stuff makes me NOT to go vote anybody in this november 2000's elections. But until then, the most interesting thing would be the answer to this question: Just what are they thinking that they will produce there now ??? Tigres ???
At the end of april 2000, the delegation from Eurocopter will arrive at IAR to settle the deal. If you ask me, this won't improve IAR's condition at all, because Eurocopter has nothing to do with it, and UNlike the americans, they will keep things as they are or even get them worse (if that's humanly possible). So, until the end of april 2000, the only thing that remains for us to do, is to think just what was in the mind of our leaders...Probably nothing. Nothing at all.

©2000 Sorin A Crasmarelu

march 2000

+11 hits for this news page alone since march 2000