| [Related: Tilting rotors could help make Bells speedy new aircraft the next Black Hawk], It looks similar to Defiant, says Germanowski, referring to the Raider X. Sikorsky hopes that the sleek, speedy design of the S-97, unveiled Thursday, will win the favor of the US Army as a potential replacement for OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter, an airframe whose history dates back to the Vietnam War era, and as an aerial platform for special operations units. The Containerized Flight Training Device (CFTD) is a full-mission flight simulator that will allow flight crews to train on the full scope of Marine Corps heavy lift missions, including external lift operations, and executing degraded visual environment take-offs and landings. Sikorsky planned to offer it for the United States Army 's Armed Aerial Scout program, along with other possible uses. (The X2 demonstrator had a gross weight of 6,000 pounds.) Unlike most helicopters, Sikorskys bid uses two counter-rotating coaxial main rotors and a pusher propeller that the company says will allow for quicker acceleration and deceleration. 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.. Presented at the 37th AHS Annual Forum, New Orleans, LA, May, 1981. X2Technology aircraft will take-off and land vertically, hover, maneuver at lowspeeds, and transition from hover to forward flight like regular helicopters. The six-passenger bird will be developed for the military and will. Join PopSci+ to read sciences greatest stories. Although the proposed armor fuselage vehicles would not need the speed capability of the ABC, it was quickly recognized that the rugged ABC rotor head had benefits for ballistic tolerance. 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. This used two very rigid counter-rotating rotors, allowing rotor lift at high speeds to migrate off the rotor centerline to the advancing sides of the rotor discs, thus eliminating retreating blade stall which limits the speed of conventional helicopters. Timeline of the Sikorsky Aircraft Company. (Bells partner on the V-22, Boeing, switched sides on FVL). The nacelles can be rotated in flight between horizontal and vertical Figure 1.36 Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. . Primarily among these was the use of separate engines for rotor power and auxiliary propulsion. It was proposed by the Serbian man Dragoljub . On June 6,2005, Sikorsky announced that it would build and test a technology demonstratorthat would maneuver like a conventional helicopter and cruise at 250 knots (288mph), which is at least 60 percent faster than conventional helicopters. A fixed-wing aircraft has engines to generate forward thrust jets or propellers and as it moves forward, air flows over the wings, which generates lift. ?This couldbe a ?game changer? Whichever helicopter becomes the Armys choice for the FARA role will be powered by a single engine, which is General Electrics T901. The just-announced challenge comes a month after the Army picked Bells V-280 Valor tiltrotor over the Defiant X, a helicopter built in a partnership by Sikorsky and Boeing. Two J-60 engines and their North American Saberliner pods (which were previously used on Sikorskys S-61F experimental compound helicopter) were used for auxiliary propulsion. A compound helicopter has no wings and two separate sets of blades, a rotor that stays a rotor and a propeller that stays a propeller. The retreating blades are going slower relative to the air, because they subtract the helicopters speed from their own, so they generate less lift. Bell V-280 Valor Joint Multi-Role Demonstrator (CGI graphic). 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. Two three-blade intermeshing contra-rotating tandem rotors, fully-articulated, all bearings submerged in oil. I recently coordinated engineering efforts for the Future . Concurrently, Sikorsky was in the early stages of developing the Advancing Blade Concept (ABC) for extending the speed range of helicopters. At high speeds, Gehler claimed, tiltrotors are far and away more maneuverable than compound helicopters: Right now, compound coax is having challenges turning at high speed., Thats true of less sophisticated compound helicopter designs, said Van Buiten, but not of theirs, in large part because of the two counter-rotating rotors. While its unclear when the Army will make a decision as to which aircraft it wants to go with for the FARA program, the FLRAA competition is further along. In a separate project, Sikorsky is working with Boeing on an X2-based helicopter called the SB-1 Defiant in a precursor program to the the Army-led Future Vertical Lift initiative, which aims to find a next-generation medium-lift helicopter for use across all the military branches. K-MAX Capabilities Unmatched Precision Unmatched Precision Unmatched Versatility Unmatched Versatility You dont want to wait for your rotors to tilt from vertical to horizontal flight mode like a V-22 or V-280, Van Buiten argued. The rotors are articulated and their blades are rigid. Helicopters dont really fly, they just beat the air into submission. By 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. The X2 Raider prototypes will be fitted with a pusher-propeller and twin coaxial counter-rotating main rotors, replacing one main rotor and a tail rotor. Unlike conventional helicopters that possess a main rotor for lift and thrust with a tail rotor for anti-torque, a coaxial helicopter utilizes two counter-rotating rotor disks that serve to provide lift, thrust, and torque neutralization. Business optimism reigned supreme at Sikorsky Aircraft during the 1980s decade. The 40 foot diameter rotor that was wind tunnel tested in 1970 was sized for a 14,500 lb gross weight, 230 knot aircraft which was felt at the time to be a size with a wide range of mission potential. The rotor diameter would grow to 40 feet, the same size as the ABC rotor being tested at the time in the NASA Ames wind tunnel. 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. Each control input provided the desired control response with little extraneous response in the other axes. On May 16th, 1977, a New York Airways helicopter killed five people in Manhattan. Some non-Sikorsky references refer to the AARV as the Sikorsky S-68. With faster speeds, you get less lift capacity unless you want to pay more. collectivelycalled "X2 Technology" ?that would significantly change helicopter flight. On a tour of the Stratford plant on Wednesday, a Sikorsky executive called the HH-60W Jolly Green II the most advanced combat helicopter ever produced by Sikorsky, with a range of defensive. Registration or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. We are testing the limitsand pioneering this exciting innovation.". The design team had never dealt with a rotor system as stiff as this before. Nevertheless, the progress of the VS-300 earned Sikorsky Aircraft a . Sikorsky's helicopters featured a sophisticated design which outperformed other manufacturers. The S-97 will be much faster than conventional helicopters, with a cruising speed of up to 220 knots, or 253 mph, according to Sikorsky. The latest technology in transparent armor would be used for the aircraft windows. Sign up to receive Popular Science's emails and get the highlights. The result was a prototype that could fly at 290 mph (460 km/h, 250 kn). By using armor plate as the primary fuselage structure one-third of the helicopters normal support structure was eliminated and it was projected that there would be a two-thirds reduction in production labor. The mainadvantage of helicopters? In effect, he said, "the rotor . It's not an everyday look for a helicopter, to say the least. Sikorsky hopes the X2 will fly. Sikorsky first flew its contra-rotating main rotor and tail-mounted pusher prop-equipped X2 technology demonstrator in 2008, eventually achieving a speed of 253kt (468km/h) in 2011. "Certainlycivilian travel appears to be a promising market. Two aircraft were fabricated. 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. While the Raider X is part of the FARA competition, Sikorskys Defiant X is part of another Army competition called FLRAA, which stands for Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft. The V-280, by contrast looks purely like a Marine design, Aboulafia said. The transmission used a simple compound planetary gearing arrangement to provide two counter-rotation output shafts and a high reduction ratio. That feat has since been eclipsed -- by a slim margin -- by the Eurocopter X3. 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. A helicopter, however, generates airflow over the wings, and thus, lift by spinning its wings thats what the rotor blades are, rotary wings. It generates thrust by angling the rotors in any direction. Sikorsky Aircraft's coaxial X2 Technology demonstrator has achieved the 250-knot (287.69 mph) milestone that was established as the goal of the craft from its inception. This was phased out at speeds from 40 to 80 knots and yaw control was provided by rudders. As a practicing engineer in the rotorcraft industry since 1997, I have had increasing responsibilities during the development of the AW609, Deepwater tiltrotor UAV, Bell Model 429, Sikorsky CH-53K . There was much concern about the extremely high control power that the rotor could develop. This had been used successfully on most coaxial helicopters in the past. By Franois Blanc We have flown more than 1,200 test flight hours and the CH-53K has achieved key milestones in 2018 such as high altitude, hot temperature,and degraded visual environment flights and we will continue to accomplish test points demonstrating this aircrafts unmatched capabilities. The company plans to demonstrate the aircraft's capabilities to the US military beginning in 2015. Exciting innovation. `` by rudders sikorsky counter rotating helicopter travel appears to be a promising.. 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