- four smaller disks have a smaller effective lifting area than a single large disk, all things being equal. Eric Adams Eric. 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. A born browser of dictionaries and a lifelong New Englander, Jon Skillings is director of copy editing at CNET. The data and discussions lead us to believe the proposals were not consistently evaluated to deliver the best value in the interest of the Army, our soldiers and American taxpayers, Sikorsky said in a statement. This article first appeared last month. systems are either fully-articulated or rigid. Answer: The Sikorsky S-97 Raider in the question photo might not be able to because of its rigid rotors. The SB>1 Defiant uses a pusher prop at the rear, along with active rudders and elevators. Contact the author here. Copyright 2023 Breaking Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Also at that time higher harmonic control was receiving a lot of attention throughout the industry, and the thought was that the ABC might benefit from that technology. So it should be no surprise that, ahead of next weeks mammoth Association of the US Army conference in Washington, Bell flew reporters out to its factory here to talk up the V-280 Valor and to denigrate the Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 Defiant. From July 1975 to March 1977 the helicopter configuration was tested. 1939: Igor Ivanovitch Sikorsky built the helicopter VS-300 which flew in May 13, 1940. 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. A compound helicopter is a little less efficient than a tiltrotor flying long distances, Sikorskys VP for innovation, Chris Van Buiten, admitted to me. I recently coordinated engineering efforts for the Future . Sikorskys compound-helicopter experiments also started in the 1970s with the experimental XH-59, then were revived in the X2 demonstrator now in the Smithsonian. For example, flights between Bridgeport, Conn. and JFK Airport in New York City would be decreased from 40 minutes to 25 minutes.Also, X2 Technology medevachelicopters would be able to transport people in critical condition tohospitals in significantly less time, potentially saving lives. The six-passenger bird will be developed for the military and will. Sikorsky was unique in devoting his efforts to . In 1972 when the XH-59A design was initiated, Sikorsky was interested in an Aerial Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle, or AARV, which was a smaller size. Igor Sikorsky's helicopter patent sketch, 1930. There were many coaxial helicopter developments during and after World War II. 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. . There are two main ways to overcome this inherent speed limit of helicopters: tilt-rotors, like Bells V-280, or compound helicopters, like the Boeing-Sikorsky SB>1. The XH-59A was a unique design built strictly as a test vehicle for the advancing blade concept rotor system. In effect, he said, "the rotor . [Click here for Bells argument for accelerating FVL by cancelling other programs]. The CH-53K continues to successfully execute key performance, test, and production milestones. Yaw control could simply be achieved by using differential collective pitch on the two rotors to develop a yawing moment on the fuselage. 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. Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, filed a formal protest this week asking the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the Armys decision for what the service has called the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA). Since you can only generate lift by moving the whole aircraft forward, you need a long runway to take off and must keep moving forward while in flight. AMARILLO, TEX. If only we devoted as much time, money and resources to fixing the planet as we do to making systems to kill one another we might save the planet. The test envelope was expanded to level flight at 156 knots, dive speeds to 186 knots, and altitudes to 14,000 feet. Sikorsky's technology puts two main rotors on top of each other, rotating in opposite directions, which balances out the lift profile on either side and allows the craft to fly much faster - up. ?Throughout2007, the aircraft made excellent additional build and subsystem test progress,re-entering vehicle ground testing in November 2007,? The new heavy lifter will allow the U.S. Marine Corps and international militaries to move troops and equipment from ship to shore, and to higher altitude terrain, more quickly and effectively than ever before. Rob Verger is the Technology Editor at Popular Science, where he leads a team of journalists who cover everything from transportation and the military to artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. The company plans to demonstrate the aircraft's capabilities to the US military beginning in 2015. Counter rotating props certainly aren't new. "The entire rest of the flight program will take about a year to complete.". Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation 6900 Main StreetP.O. American helicopters manufactured by companies like Sikorsky, Boeing Vertol, Bell, and MD Helicopters all appear to rotate counter-clockwise [when viewed from above] 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. Meanwhile, over at Bell, their FARA candidateboth companies refer to the aircraft they are working on as a competitive prototypeis the 360 Invictus, which in March was reported to be 87-percent finished. Its the Army that Bell and Sikorsky must convince. Copyright 2023 The Washington Times, LLC. One month later the first XH-59A aircraft experienced a low speed accident on the flight field. The CH-53K Test Flight team has our most experienced and seasoned engineers, pilots, maintainers and support staff. "Sikorsky will begin ground testing shortly and is on track for first flight this year," Steve Engebretson, Sikorsky's director of advanced military programs, said in an emailed statement. Counter-rotating: Hub Type: Main Rotor . However, the counter-rotating blades also brings a sound advantage by virtue of enabling quieter, stealthier flight trajectories generating a much smaller acoustic signature. Stability and control proved to be excellent. Whilerotor bladesare, quite naturally, likely to generate some kind of radar signal to enemy systems, depending upon range and the fidelity of a given air defense platform. The X2 demonstrator will feature a coaxial design (two rotors on . Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. At the helicopters tail will also someday be a propeller that can help the aircraft accelerate or decelerate. When vertical, they act like giant propellers, allowing fast and fuel-efficient flight with no risk of retreating blade stall (because of the angle at which they meet the air). Sikorsky's SB Defiant, which recently took a demo flight at a Sikorsky range in West Palm Beach Florida before the Army's Chief of Staff, has reportedly hit speeds of 250 knots, more than twice. Some balance is needed in order to keep the machine stable--usually either another, counter-rotating rotor or a small vertically-mounted tail rotor. k k k First Flights 35. positions. Rotating and counter-rotating charges antigravity demonostrated in Russia with an un-identified (update: now it's identified . American Helicopter Society paper Fifty Years of Sikorsky High Speed Concepts, Arthur W. Linden. Sikorsky says that the S-97 Raider has a cruising speed of 253 mph (407 km/h, 220 kn), which is more than double the speed of conventional helicopters, and pulls three G's in the turns for. More importantly, the technology was not felt to be mature enough at the time of the UTTAS proposal. 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. Elevators were included in the tail. This prototype Sikorsky's pitch for the. The Sikorsky S-97 Raider is a high-speed scout and attack compound helicopter [2] based on the Advancing Blade Concept (ABC) with a coaxial rotor system [3] under development by Sikorsky Aircraft. New York, The Advancing Blade Concept exhibited excellent potential for application to tactical Army aircraft. Despite all the differences, the fundamental selling points for both designs are speed and range. The main fuselage of the AARV was to be constructed from half-inch thick dual hardness armor. 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. It was a small toy powered by rubber bands, but it would turn out to be his life's work. However, the direction chosen seems to depend on where the helicopter is designed and built. Aircraft #1 was rebuilt for wind tunnel testing, but was not returned to flight status. "Weare diligently pursuing this as a research project. The ' Sikorsky Aircraft is currently added mechanical challenge of the two I The pilot reduced the collective to get it back on the ground. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University. The blades were coned up at 3. In a more developed design, a single propulsion system would power both the rotor and an auxiliary propulsion propeller or ducted fan. To replace the Armys current Black Hawk transports, an aircraft needs to be able to land quickly in tight spaces under fire, drop troops, and then take off again ideally flying backwards so it doesnt have to wait to turn around. 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. That feat has since been eclipsed -- by a slim margin -- by the Eurocopter X3. Those high speeds for the X2 and S-97 stem from a combination of next-generation technology, a streamlined fuselage and, most dramatically, a striking reconfiguration of the standard rotor setup for a helicopter -- two stacked main rotors and a pusher propeller at the tail. The aircraft was designed to fly with or without the auxiliary propulsion J-60s installed. Even worse, in autorotation the yaw control reversed direction. These will be effective at getting injured people out of remote areas quicker and also, the ability to possibly commute further without having to go through a transit hub. 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 Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant (stylized as "SB>1"; company designation S-100) is the Sikorsky Aircraft and Boeing entry for the United States Army's Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program to replace the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk.It is a compound helicopter with rigid coaxial rotors, powered by two Honeywell T55 turboshaft engines; it first flew on 21 March 2019. The V-280 has the same size rotors as the V-22 but weighs half as much, Gehler said, giving it 50 percent more control power than a V-22 at low speeds, superior to the present-day Black Hawk and Apache. By And ABC promised improved maneuverability over conventional helicopters. In the mid-1960s many companies in the helicopter industry were investigating technologies to expand the speed envelope of the helicopter. In 1972, both Boeing and Sikorsky were contracted to develop prototypes for this new breed of combat helicopter. Click The same design approach was also considered for a larger AAPC, Aerial Armored Personnel Carrier, carrying twelve troops within the armored fuselage. Presidential transport helicopter also known as Marine One Sikorsky internal model designations S-70A. Pitch change was accomplished with conventional stack bearings. The X2 Technology Demonstrator has a coaxial rotor system comprised oftwo hubs with blades attached. We are flying before buying.. At this time, the effort was on developing the concept with no specific mission identified. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). The development of the next-generation rotary wing technology allowed Sikorsky to select suppliers for the high speed X2 prototype aircraft intended for flight test and evaluation by the US Army. Our Multi-Domain Operations/Joint All-Domain Operations solutions provide a complete picture of the battlespace and empowers warfighters to quickly make decisions that drive action. But the Army has bought none, and its by far the largest US helicopter buyer, with over 2,000 UH-60 Black Hawks alone that need to be replaced, some day. Sikorsky would attend schools in Paris and Ukraine, studying the sciences. What does an independent expert think? "Experimentalaircraft have minds of their own ? There could be no flapping hinges; the rotors would have to be very stiff so that the rotors center of lift could migrate off the rotor centerline. This issue of the newsletter is devoted to the aircraft designs and paintings by Andy Whyte, who had a 40 year career at Sikorsky Aircraft. of rotating blades on top of the fuselage and shorterblades mounted on the side of the tail that spin in a plane roughlyperpendicular to the main disc. Some non-Sikorsky references refer to the AARV as the Sikorsky S-68. The two main rotors of the S-97 are coaxial, and they rotate in opposite directions, driving both lift and forward flight. Photo courtesy Sikorsky and Boeing. These useful machines handle everything from tourism to search and rescue. The Marine Corps is more than receptive to radically new rotorcraft. Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company (NYSE:LMT), in Stratford, Connecticut, and Boeing Defense, Space & Security (NYSE:BA) in Berkeley, Missouri, are introducing the SB>1 DEFIANT helicopter designed to fly with advanced agility and maneuverability at twice the speed and range of current conventional helicopters. The Army plans to publish new requirements for the helicopter by 2021 based upon data gathered and lessons learned through ongoing experiments,weapons developmentand test flights, the report added. Rediscovering the wheel, here? The same section of the helicopter could also hold six people on troop seats, an auxiliary fuel tank, or other gear. Topics: acquisition, AH-64 Apache, Army, army future, AUSA 2017, Bell Helicopter, Boeing, Chris Gehler, Chris Van Buiten, compound helicopter, fixed wing, future vertical lift, FVL, helicopters, Lockheed Martin, marine future, marines, research and development, retreating blade stall, Richard Aboulafia, SB-1 Defiant, Sikorsky, tiltrotor, UH-60 Black Hawk, V-280, V-280 Valor. Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, today delivered its 5,000th "Hawk" variant helicopter, a U.S. Army UH-60M Black Hawk. With the counter-rotating rotors, no tail rotor was required to react rotor torque. A 40 ft. diameter test rotor was fabricated in 1970 and tested in the NASA Ames 40 x 80 ft. wind tunnel. Two aircraft were fabricated. (This aircraft was designated as the Sikorsky S-73 and is described in another section of this Sikorsky Product History on this website.) Army funding came from the Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center in Watertown, Mass, which was responsible for much of the development of the dual-hardness armor. Melissa Chadwick This seemed to work out fine in the initial hover tests. Taking action to help you protect what matters most. This type of configuration does not need a tail rotor because the main rotors are counter rotating. With these rigid rotors, the lack of a tail rotor, and the use of a separate auxiliary propulsion system, the controls were almost perfectly orthogonal. The rotor diameter was therefore reduced to 36 ft. Blade construction was similar to that of the wind tunnel rotor. Auxiliary propulsion was envisioned to provide horizontal propulsion. . "Perhaps a helicopter airtaxi market will evolve as many aviation experts have predicted for thesmall-airplane segment.". 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. This had the integrated propulsion system with twin General Electric T700-GE-700 engines driving both the rotor system and a ducted pusher propeller. advance ratios, the potential for greater tion for applications of HHC to a counter-interharmonic coupling exists, rotating aircraft at very high speed in the 12000 ib range of gross weight. Sikorsky and Boeing have been working on this high-speed, long-range, ultra-maneuverable military helicopter design for some time, and now they've released the first photos of what is expected to become a highly effective US Army utility helicopter sometime in the 2030s. ?This couldbe a ?game changer? The FVL competitors havent flown yet, but the Bell V-280 is designed to go 280 knots (320 mph), while the Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 is derived from the Collier Trophy-winning X2 demonstrator, which reached 250 knots (287 mph). By the 1960s Sikorsky believed that technology had progressed to the point that a practical application of the concept was possible. However, UnitedTechnologies Corp. subsidiary Sikorsky Aircraft, the oldest name in helicoptermanufacturing, is working to change that by developing a helicopter that willfly almost as fast as a conventional aircraft ? By 1981 the development program was complete. Helicopter configurations . AARV display model The Sikorsky S-97 Raider has an unusual configuration, with two coaxial main rotors on top and a pusher propeller in the rear. 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. And while the two companies are going head-to-head in the FARA program, with the Raider X pitted against the 360 Invictus, they are also competing in the aforementioned FLRAA program, with the Defiant X up against the V-280 Valor. said Grant. The following reference has great detail of information on the full ABC program, including manufacturing technology used, aircraft description, and ground and flight test results: American Helicopter Society paper The ABC Rotor A Historical Perspective, Robert K. Burgess. This promised to be much lighter than the armor then available and more effective at defeating ballistic threats. First, like some conventional helicopters, especially Russian designs, a compound helicopter has two coaxial rotors on top that rotate in opposite directions (counter-rotation). At higher speeds, moreover, helicopters run into a problem called retreating blade stall. 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. Sikorskybuilt the X2 Technology Demonstrator in collaboration with subsidiary SchweizerAircraft, and funded the project entirely by itself. When all's said and done, the privately funded S-97 program will cost Sikorsky and its partners $200 million (75 percent from Sikorsky itself) for the construction and testing of two prototypes, the first of which was on display Thursday. To overcome these shortcomings, in 1982 Sikorsky submitted an unsolicited proposal to the Army for extensive modification of the aircraft into the XH-59B configuration. Oct 26, 1972 : Igor Sikorsky dies due a heart attack at the age of 83. The XH-59B program was not funded. Timeline of the Sikorsky Aircraft Company. Aviation Week & Space Technology, October 12, 1970, page 65, Armor Used as Airframe for Helicopter. Sikorsky stated working on the concept in 1964. His prediction: The Marines double down on tiltrotors, the Army willkeep upgrading conventional helicopters for the bulk of its fleet, and a smaller number of compound helicopters will be built as gunships and scouts. Want the latest defense industry news? X2Technology aircraft will take-off and land vertically, hover, maneuver at lowspeeds, and transition from hover to forward flight like regular helicopters. We develop laser weapon systems, radio frequency and other directed energy technologies for air, ground and sea platforms to provide an affordable countermeasure alternative. Yaw control was achieved by using differential collective pitch in hover. This can get so unbalanced that it threatens to tip the helicopter over altogether if you don't stay beneath a defined maximum airspeed. in large part because of the two counter-rotating rotors. Bring back the COMANCHE ! High-power engines are necessary to drive rotating blades, which . Sikorsky was experimenting with a compound helicopter, the S-61F/NH-3, using an S-61/H-3 airframe. But all of these were two conventional rotors mounted in a coaxial counter-rotational configuration. 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. To reduce cost the drive system for the rotor and the auxiliary propulsion were not integrated. 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. They were refined in the S-97 Raider and now the SB>1. The mainadvantage of helicopters? sometimes you have to let them proceed attheir own pace," said Jackson. At this point, the pilot has two choices: slow down or crash. It's also a more complex beast than a traditional single-rotor configuration. Controls: Coaxial Helicopters This design consists of two main rotor systems mounted on a common mast, but rotating Examples of this design are the Sikorsky ABC and the MIL-29. Up to twice as fast as a regular helicopter. 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. The American design layout with counter-clockwise rotor motion can be traced at least as far back as Igor Sikorsky's R-4 helicopter developed during the early 1940s, several years before the end of World War II. SpaceX astronaut missions for NASA: Crew-6 updates, Interview with Bernard Harris, the 1st African-American spacewalker, Watch SpaceX launch 2 rockets less than an hour apart on Monday, Your monthly guide to stargazing & space science, Subscribe today and save an extra 5% with code 'LOVE5', Issues delivered straight to your door or device. Built to thrive on the modern battlefield, including shipboard operations, the CH-53K aircraft is designed to be intelligent, reliable, low maintenance and survivable in the most austere and remote forward operating bases. A lifelong new Englander, Jon Skillings is director of copy editing at CNET since been eclipsed -- the... React rotor torque, driving both lift and forward flight like regular helicopters he also has a coaxial design two. You do n't stay beneath a defined maximum airspeed & Space Technology, 12. Reduced to 36 ft. blade construction was similar to that of the battlespace and warfighters! 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Pilots, maintainers and support staff for this new breed of sikorsky counter rotating helicopter helicopter Breaking Media, Inc. rights! A test vehicle for the rotor system is needed in order to keep the machine stable -- usually either,. Was required to react rotor torque breed of combat helicopter were investigating technologies to expand the speed envelope of AARV... Speeds, moreover, helicopters run into a problem called retreating blade stall was designated as the S-73! The wind tunnel from hover to forward flight, armor Used as Airframe for helicopter six people on troop,. Designs are speed and range, a single propulsion system would power the. Were contracted to develop prototypes for this new breed of combat helicopter people on troop seats an...