Auxiliary propulsion flights were conducted from April 1978 to January 1981. Sikorskyis developing plans to design and build a civilian X2 Technology helicopterthat would satisfy operators? The fastest Army helicopter in widespread service, the CH-47F Chinook, maxes out at about 170 knots, which is 195 miles per hour, and has an effective reach (mission radius) of 200 nautical miles, or 230 statute miles. Despite talk of far-ranging maneuvers and Multi-Domain Battles, he doubts the Army will be willing to pay a high premium for speed and range, which the Marines have already proven willing to do on the V-22. There were many coaxial helicopter developments during and after World War II. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. The nacelles can be rotated in flight between horizontal and vertical Figure 1.36 Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. ?Customers aredemanding greater speed but without sacrificing any of the unique capabilitiesthat make helicopters theideal platform for countless civil and military missions.? Although the X2 is headed out to pasture, some of its technology will be used in Sikorsky's next helicopter, the S-97 Raider. The ABC had the additional advantages of not requiring a tail rotor, and a design where the control swashplates for the two rotors were buried below the rotors, both further reducing the vulnerable area of the aircraft against ballistic threats. Sikorsky has recently registered a new helicopter model named the S-100 with the FAA. It's not an idle promise. Sikorsky hopes the X2 will fly. It's not an everyday look for a helicopter, to say the least. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, Additionally, with the stiff rotors and lack of a tail rotor, the ABC was thought by pilots to be an improvement over conventional helicopters in low speed flight. Being a concept demonstrator, the XH-59A had a number of compromises in its design to hold program cost down. The program did not progress beyond these conceptual efforts. This set the program back for over a year while the cause of the accident was determined. That's in an assault configuration; there will also be an attack variant that shares a common fly-by-wire drivetrain and many other systems, but has a different composite fuselage and is much more heavily armed. TheCH-53K King Stallionadvances Sikorskys 50 years of manufacturing and operational success with its CH-53A, CH-53D/G, and CH-53E predecessors. The initial version of this helicopter, called the SB>1 Defiant, flew for the first time in March of 2019, and Popular Science has also recognized it in its Best of What's New awards.. Now Sikorsky Aircraft has put that experimental technology into a more mature package, the S-97 Raider. "Experimentalaircraft have minds of their own ? If this scout helicopter sounds similar in design to another from Sikorsky, thats because it is. Presented at the 37th AHS Annual Forum, New Orleans, LA, May, 1981. equipped with means for aerodynamic control of attitude and flight path . At low speeds, the difference between the advancing and retreating blades is negligible. The X2 won the 2010 Collier Award for demonstrating a revolutionary 250 knot helicopter, which marks a proven departure point for the future development of helicopters by greatly increasing their speed, maneuverability and utility. The Collier Award is given out once each year for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance. Helicopters dont really fly, they just beat the air into submission. 2023 Lockheed Martin Corporation. The first was a two place reconnaissance vehicle, the AARV Aerial Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle proposed as a follow-on to the Armys light observation helicopters then in production, the Hughes OH-6A and the Bell OH-58A. The turning power comes not from a rotating engine in the helicopter body but from the roto Continue Reading Sponsored by TruHeight Still looking for TruHeight Gummies? Sikorskybuilt the X2 Technology Demonstrator in collaboration with subsidiary SchweizerAircraft, and funded the project entirely by itself. . At the helicopters tail will also someday be a propeller that can help the aircraft accelerate or decelerate. The XH-59A was a unique design built strictly as a test vehicle for the advancing blade concept rotor system. This article first appeared last month. Someday, the Army could welcome a new scout helicopter into its fleet. Sikorsky stated working on the concept in 1964. And lifting payload is a biggie for the mission profile. Will the military actually buy either design? It was one of a number of concepts initially considered for the UTTAS (later Black Hawk). Naval Air Test Center Technical Report, RW-37R-79, Final report, Advanced Helicopter Rotor Systems, Initial Navy Evaluation of the XH-59A Advancing Blade Concept (ABC) Demonstrator Aircraft, LT. T.L.MacDonald, USN; MAJ M.S.Blair, USMC; and S. Kolwey, January 17, 1980. Mosthelicopters have a ?disc? One of the unique features of the XH-59A gearbox was an ability to create differential rotor speed, which would provide yawing moments which did not reverse in autorotation. Raider X is one of two candidates in the Army's Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft competition. Groundtesting of the X2 Technology Demonstrator is still underway and Sikorsky hasn'tyet scheduled a date for the aircraft's first flight, said company spokesmanPaul Jackson. Some obvious design differences present themselves between the two aircraft prototypes: Bells aircraft employs a single main rotor up top, and a tandem cockpit, meaning the two pilots sit with one person in front of the other, as opposed to side-by-side. Where a standard helicopter uses a side-facing tail rotor to offset the torque of the main rotor in front, the pusher propeller of the S-97 will assist in high-speed acceleration and deceleration. ?The X2Technology Demonstrator is an integrated suite of technologies intended toadvance the state-of-the-art, counter-rotating coaxial rotor helicopter. In general, tiltrotors dont offer the kind of agility and maneuverability that a compound design does, said Richard Aboulafia, aviation analyst at the Teal Group. Sikorsky?sX2 Technology Demonstrator incorporates leading-edge aerospace technologies,including digital fly-by-wire flight controls, counter-rotating rigid rotorblades that spin more slowly as the helicopter reaches higher cruising speeds,active vibration control, an integrated auxiliary propulsion system, and more. All rights reserved. In an unconventional approach, a concept was proposed to build a helicopter fuselage with this armor, rather that simply adding the armor parasitically around sensitive areas of the vehicle. The rigid rotors provided high control power. Nelson Hyde Chick - this will likely be used for more then just war. Last month, the Army saw its final class of eight aviators complete Kiowa flight training at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Although thetop speed of helicopters has not increased much since the 1960s, improvementsin computers, materials, navigation systems, and other aspects of aircraftduring the past two generations have been unprecedented. This was phased out at speeds from 40 to 80 knots and yaw control was provided by rudders. Airwolf would still eat it for breakfast. It should be no surprise, either, that when I asked Sikorsky to respond to Bells critique, they got a senior executive on the phone in less than 24 hours. In high speed flight the XH-59A handled as though it were a fixed wing aircraft. Sikorsky was experimenting with a compound helicopter, the S-61F/NH-3, using an S-61/H-3 airframe. Its just $1 per month . Most of these were "compound" helicopters, adding a wing and auxiliary propulsion to off load the rotor of its lift and forward thrust requirements at high speed. By the 1960s Sikorsky believed that technology had progressed to the point that a practical application of the concept was possible. He honed his language skills as a US Army linguist (Polish and German) before diving into editing tech publications back when the web was just getting under way. Sikorsky is now ground-testing its X2 Technology Demonstrator, a revolutionary helicopter that uses coaxial, counter-rotating blades and a pusher propeller. Rotating and counter-rotating charges antigravity demonostrated in Russia with an un-identified (update: now it's identified . Designs were prepared for the rotor, drive system, and controls, and preliminary designs of mission aircraft were studied. There was much concern about the extremely high control power that the rotor could develop. Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation 6900 Main StreetP.O. For example, the12-passenger S-76 helicopter flies at 178 mph, but an 11-seat BeechcraftKingAir 350 turboprop flies at 350 mph, nearly twice as fast. The Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 DEFIANT helicopter achieved first flight March 21, 2019. But when you start moving forward through the air, the blade starts developing extra lift on the side where the blades are rushing forward into the wind, and less lift on the opposite side where the blades are going backwards with the wind. Contour flight handling qualities revealed the XH-59A is capable of crossing terrain in high speed (215 knots) contour flight, thus reducing the reaction time available to the enemy targets and defenses. Sikorsky S-97 Raider Light Tactical Helicopter The S-97 Raider is a light tactical helicopter being developed by Sikorsky to demonstrate the capabilities of the company's X2 Technology. Four years later, Sikorsky eventually won the competition to build the Army's new UH-60A helicopter. Elevators were included in the tail. Courtesy of Igor I. Sikorsky Historical Archives, Inc. By Franois Blanc S-70A-1 Desert Hawk; variant for Saudi Arabian military S-70A-1L Saudi Desert Hawk Medevac variant S-70A-5 Variant for Philippine Air Force S-70A-9 systems are either fully-articulated or rigid. Its the Army that Bell and Sikorsky must convince. So which systems better? Missions Armed reconnaissance Length 37ft Width 16ft Rotor Diameter 34ft Speed 220k Expand Sikorsky is pitching the funky, fast S-97 Raider as a replacement for today's light attack and scout helicopters, via the Army's Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program. Sikorsky did many conceptual designs of aircraft using the ABC principle. Remember, rotors rotate. Privacy Terms of Use EU and UK Data Protection Notice Cookies. The downside of a tilt-rotor is the mechanical complexity and weight of the mechanisms needed to do the tilting as well as the need to switch modes in flight. 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