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Comment by cs702 | Hacker News Reader

I can't help but wonder: Who, exactly, wants to buy helicopters from such fly-by-night operators?

For there must be demand. Otherwise all the planning, capital raising, investment, hiring, construction, accounting, etc. necessary for starting and operating this bootleg helicopter factory would have never been done in the fist place.

Who would want to buy bootleg helicopters? Is it developing countries seeking to save a bit of money by buying them in the black market? Or two-bit dictators who cannot buy helicopters through more, ahem, official channels due to trading sanctions? Assorted unsavory characters from the criminal underworld? Self-made entrepreneurs who want to get a good deal on a "genuine-looking" Soviet helicopter?

Surreal.

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The parts for the helis might have come from an old factory that shut down, the parts might have been bought very cheap. Someone then decided to build some helis with the parts but clearly decided to forego the permit process and just forge all of the paperwork the customer gets. Someone buying them might have just been expecting a good deal on an older design but still legit helis or they knew they were not legit and were planning to resell them to other groups. I'm not sure anyone would actually want to fly in a heli they knew had forged paperwork.

Like trying to save money on a motorcycle helmet.

Perhaps if they were part of organized crime groups and/or people in the disputed region and are unable to buy and maintain a legal helicopter, it might be of consideration.

The buyer is not necessarily sitting in it, people have built submarines powered by humans to smuggle drugs after all.

>I'm not sure anyone would actually want to fly in a heli they knew had forged paperwork

I don't know anything about aircraft. However if I was to fly myself one I'd want to know enough about it to verify its safety independently. If I had the skill to verify the safety independently (effectively I'd have to be a pilot/helicopter mechanic), I wouldn't care all that much about the paperwork.

It's not obvious from the article itself but this thing is basically a crop duster, not some coveted piece of vintage military gear.

That's what I'm thinking, this is being bought by farms. Particularly by farms which are used to using these models.

> I can't help but wonder: Who, exactly, wants to buy helicopters from such fly-by-night operators?

Boeing still has a market

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