Following our analysis yesterday of the R66’s outlook….

Turning to his personal future, Frank is cutting right back on his flying hours, on the grounds that he has “promised too many people that he would make it to 100”, followed by one of his famous wry smiles. He claims to have not thought too much about what he will do in retirement, but he did hint that a life-long inventor is unlikely to be found every day in his favourite soft chair watching the world go by. Will he be keeping an eye on activities in Torrance? Will he be involved at all in the running of the company? No, he has full faith in his son Kurt taking it forward and developing it further. But what happens if Frank doesn’t like what he sees, can he still do anything about it? Oh yes, he says, he can still “pull the rug from under Kurt”, citing his 100% ownership of RHC.

One suspects that Frank will not be entirely out of the industry spotlight. We’ve spoken to those who love Robinson helicopters and those who take the opposing view, and the overwhelming summary is that Frank Robinson has made more impact on helping expand the world’s civilian helicopter market than any other person in the last 40 years. And we are all in debt to him for this.

This is one of a series of five articles from HeliHub.com’s interview with Frank Robinson – here are links to all five
* Frank Robinson completes UK tour
* Frank Robinson talks to HeliHub.com about the market for the R66
* Frank Robinson promises he will make it to 100
* Surviving the recession, by Frank Robinson
* Frank Robinson prefers R44 to R66 (and other anecdotes)