In September 2010, Sikorsky's similarly designed X2 technology demonstrator reached a speed of 250 knots (287 mph), a feat that the longtime rotorcraft maker at the time said "unofficially shattered the helicopter world speed record." Remember, rotors rotate. 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. NY 10036. At low speeds, the difference between the advancing and retreating blades is negligible. An extensive flight test program of about 170 flight hours was accomplished through 1981. Loz has been one of our most versatile contributors since 2007, and has since proven himself as a photographer, videographer, presenter, producer and podcast engineer, as well as a senior features writer. On the ground, the top rotors can be folded back, allowing it to be stored and transported easily. Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com. The SB>1 Defiant uses a pusher prop at the rear, along with active rudders and elevators. The X2 Technology Demonstrator has a coaxial rotor system comprised oftwo hubs with blades attached. The turret thats installed on the aircraft is the real deal flight-worthy turret, Germanowski says, with the actuation motors, and the motor controller unit, and all of the electronics that allow us to swivel the gun in azimuth, and pitch the gun in elevation., [Related: Sikorskys fancy new helicopter completed its longest flight yet]. Photo: Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. To paraphrase helicopter pioneer Igor Sikorsky: If you're in trouble . 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. Another huge measure of potential stealth for the aircraft likely resides in its ability to manage aheat signatureas well, something about which there may be little information available. The pilot inputted more and more forward cyclic to counter this, until the stick was on the forward stop and the aircraft was still nosing up. But in this configuration and design - they are. The Armys Future Long Range Assault Aircraft is slated to enter war by 2030, bringing what service developers say is more than twice the range and speed of existing utility and attack helicopters. Sikorsky was experimenting with a compound helicopter, the S-61F/NH-3, using an S-61/H-3 airframe. (Move too slowly and you stall, potentially falling out of the sky). Counter-rotating: Hub Type: Main Rotor . Sikorsky was unique in devoting his efforts to the single-rotor philosophy, which he erroneously believed he had originated. The upper and lower counter-rotating gear 62 u, 621 drive a respective upper and lower rotor shaft 64 u, 641 which rotates the counter-rotating rotor systems 28 a, 28 b about an axis R. Input power is transmitted from the powerplants 22 through the driveshafts 54 A, 54 B to the upper and lower counter-rotating gear 62 u, 621 and the drive shaft 38. "Perhaps a helicopter airtaxi market will evolve as many aviation experts have predicted for thesmall-airplane segment.". His last day in his office at the Stratford plant of Sikorsky Aircraft was the day before Jul 29, 1973 : S-69 ABC (XH-59) The ABC (Advancing Blade Concept) was designed to prove the viability of two counter rotating main rotors on a common axis as a means of achieving higher speeds and better agility 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. SpaceX Crew-6 astronaut launch: Live updates, Heli-Skiing: Winter Thrills in Remote Areas, Marvel's 'Star Wars' comics celebrate Women's History Month with Peach Momoko covers. 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. 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. From July 1975 to March 1977 the helicopter configuration was tested. 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 Sikorsky-Boeing tech demonstrator SB-1 Defiant first took flight in March 2019 and leverages Sikorskys X2 technology with a rigid compound rotor and pusher prop. Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation: Counter-rotating rotor system with stationary standpipe US20150139799A1 (en) * 2013-11-15: 2015-05-21: Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation . The S-97 prototypes, Sikorsky has said, will go beyond the X2 aircraft in several ways, demonstrating precision maneuvers in low flight speed, high G turning maneuvers at over 200 knots, and hot-day hover performance at altitudes up to 10,000 feet. Sikorsky would attend schools in Paris and Ukraine, studying the sciences. The coaxial design is uncommon, but not unprecedented -- it's long been a distinguishing characteristic of helicopters from Russian manufacturer Kamov. The Advancing Blade Concept exhibited excellent potential for application to tactical Army aircraft. The rotor design had to be more similar to that of a propeller than that of then current helicopter rotors. Taking action to help you protect what matters most. My team strives to advance aircraft engine capability through prioritization, definition, and execution of technology maturation programs. It never went beyond the concept stage. k k k First Flights 35. positions. The design team had never dealt with a rotor system as stiff as this before. (Source: US Air Force.) [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. When Black Marxist Angela Davis found out her ancestors owned slaves. Learn More. He writes occasionally, on topics from GPS to James Bond. One of the concerns with the coaxial rotor arrangement was how to provide aircraft yaw control. The nacelles can be rotated in flight between horizontal and vertical Figure 1.36 Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. 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. With this rotor configuration, the rotors capability to generate lift would not drop off with speed, or with altitude. Second, to provide the raw forward thrust for fast flight, the back of the aircraft mounts a pusher propeller. Watch later. All Rights Reserved. Sikorsky and Boeing hope that the Army chooses this flying machine to be its next Black-Hawk-type aircraft, as it's a candidate in a program called FLRAA, which stands for Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft.Defiant's competition comes from Bell, whose entry into the showdown is called the V-280 Valor.Unlike the Defiant, the V-280 is a tiltrotor aircraft, meaning that large rotors on the . The 6.5 ft. ducted propeller would be mounted under the rotor system to minimize aircraft size. It was a small toy powered by rubber bands, but it would turn out to be his life's work. First flight occurred in June, 1973. 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. Both Sikorsky and the Army had higher priorities at the time. 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. Sikorsky planned to offer it for the United States Army 's Armed Aerial Scout program, along with other possible uses. [Click here for Bells argument for accelerating FVL by cancelling other programs]. Sikorsky's candidate features coaxial top rotors: The two large rotors on top of the helicopter, which give it lift, spin in opposite directions, negating the need for a traditional tail rotor.. A high cost item at the time was the monolithic titanium blade spars. During this period the Navy, Air Force, and NASA joined the Army in providing funding support. 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. . 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. Rob Verger Some balance is needed in order to keep the machine stable--usually either another, counter-rotating rotor or a small vertically-mounted tail rotor. 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.. The S-61 Sikorsky series began development in 1950 and went into service in 1961. 2023 CNET, a Red Ventures company. The spar tubes were then hot formed into an elliptical shape, while twisted, in ceramic hot-forming dies. These two ideas were combined into an aircraft with an armor fuselage and an ABC rotor system. We are flying before buying.. 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. "Experimentalaircraft have minds of their own ? 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. 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. Both companies agree that the Bell V-280 Valor, which has wings, is more fuel-efficient in long-range flight than the Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 Defiant, which just has rotors. ?Weinitiated X2 Technology convinced that the most productive and flexiblehelicopter is a helicopter which is capable of a significant increase in speed,?said Stephen Finger, then-president of Sikorsky Aircraft. 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. 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. However, the counter-rotating blades also brings a sound advantage by virtue of enabling quieter, stealthier flight trajectories generating a much smaller acoustic signature. This was phased out at speeds from 40 to 80 knots and yaw control was provided by rudders. That might require different designs for different missions and different services, Aboulafia told me, with the military ending up with a mix of tiltrotors, compound helicopters, and traditional helicopters. X2Technology aircraft will take-off and land vertically, hover, maneuver at lowspeeds, and transition from hover to forward flight like regular helicopters. A composite rotor system, with flexbeams replacing the pitch bearings, would replace the heavy titanium blades on the A version. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). Update: In an email, an Army spokesperson says the service plans to make a decision for one FARA aircraft in fiscal year 2025, which for the US government begins Oct. 1, 2024. The aircraft has been assigned the registration N100FV. Sikorsky did many conceptual designs of aircraft using the ABC principle. 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. Composite materials technology would soon appear which could produce a better blade, with almost infinite options in geometry, at a substantially reduced cost and lighter weight. 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. The aircraft build is 90-percent complete, says Pete Germanowski, the chief engineer on the FARA program at Sikorsky. It's also a more complex beast than a traditional single-rotor configuration. The blades were coned up at 3. That is a helicopter, not this bulky overly complexed strange concept idea worked into a "commercial" vehicle, New quantum state boosts material's conductivity by a billion percent, GE installs world's first spiral-welded wind turbine tower, BAE unveils the Strix, a fascinating, tail-sitting X-wing VTOL UAV. When it comes to the fastest helicopters, the V-22 is by far the fastest- except it isn't really a helicopter at all. Photo courtesy Sikorsky and Boeing. Pino said of the X2 TechnologyDemonstrator at Heli-Expo 2008, the main U.S. helicopter convention. When the compound helicopter is hovering, the rotors on top get most of the engine power and do most of the work, much like a traditional helicopter. The advancing blades are effectively going faster, relative to the air, because they add the helicopters forward movement to their own, so they generate more lift. It has already committed heavily to the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor jointly built by Bell and Boeing. Designed to help the U.S. and allies leverage emerging technologies to create a resilient multi-domain network. Two three-blade intermeshing contra-rotating tandem rotors, fully-articulated, all bearings submerged in oil. 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 to twice the airspeed of a regular helicopter while maintaining excellent handling and agility. 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 CFTD replicates the functionality, flight characteristics, mission profiles and unmatched capabilities of the CH-53K helicopter. The XH-59A was a unique design built strictly as a test vehicle for the advancing blade concept rotor system. 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. "Weare diligently pursuing this as a research project. As a result, the control system was designed with a very low gain to prevent the controls from being too sensitive. 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 ? Being a concept demonstrator, the XH-59A had a number of compromises in its design to hold program cost down. Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 Defiant. here for reprint permission. A helicopter can be designed to have blades that rotate clockwise or counterclockwise. equipped with means for aerodynamic control of attitude and flight path This is the most popular arrangement today. It's not an idle promise. So which systems better? With a composite airframe, the 36-foot-long single-engine S-97 prototype has a maximum gross weight of just over 11,000 pounds. At this time, the effort was on developing the concept with no specific mission identified. 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. By the 1960s the Russians had a coaxial helicopter in production. The CH-53K helicopter has been designed and built to the exacting standards of the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) and will serve as its critical land and sea based logistics connector. We are testing the limitsand pioneering this exciting innovation.". The XH-59B program was not funded. Sikorsky Global Helicopters was created in early 2009 as a business unit of the company to focus on commercial aircraft. The basic airframes there, the cockpit doors are installed, the weapons bay doors are installed, the landing gear is installed and serviced, [and] many of the electrical and hydraulic subsystems are fully installed and going through their acceptance test procedures., In the photo above, a few details stand out. 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 The armor would represent approximately 1,800 pounds of the aircrafts 6,800 pounds gross weight. said Grant. Lockheed Martin delivered the first CH-53K training device to the U.S. Navy on April 14, 2020. In another image, below, additional 3D-printed components protrude out of the weapons bay, which is open. The extra lift from each rotors advancing blade balances out the diminished lift from the opposite sides retreating blade, which gets rid of retreating blade stall. In the mid-1960s many companies in the helicopter industry were investigating technologies to expand the speed envelope of the helicopter. This proved the basic advancing blade concept and led to a contract in 1972 with the U.S. Army for the design, fabrication, and flight testing of the XH-59A advancing blade concept demonstrator aircraft. The six-passenger bird will be developed for the military and will. The XH-59A exhibited excellent handling qualities. It is similar to a tandem rotor system when in helicopter mode. Independent control for upper and lower rotor of a rotary wing aircraft Patent number: 11440650 Abstract: An aircraft is provide including an airframe, an extending tail, and a counter rotating, coaxial main rotor assembly including an upper rotor assembly and a lower rotor assembly. Registration or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Vertipedia provides high-quality information on current and historical aircraft, as well as notable milestones in the history of vertical flight and biographical information on the people who made them happen. Presented at the 60th AHS Annual Forum, Baltimore, MD, June, 2004. 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. Answer (1 of 2): Contra-rotating Coaxial Rotors do cancel out one "speed limit" of helicopters, but needs help to overcome the second "speed limit". The two main rotors of the S-97 are coaxial, and they rotate in opposite directions, driving both lift and forward flight. The SB>1 Defiant is a joint multi-role medium-class Future Vertical Lift technology demonstrator built around Sikorsky's X2 platform, which uses two counter-rotating rigid blades on the top of the aircraft to eliminate the retreating blade stall problem that puts a ~150 mph (~240 kmh) speed limit on helicopters with a single top rotor. The counter-rotating blade is basedupon innovative engineering methods that combines airplane-like speeds with the hovering and maneuvering capabilities unique to helicopters. K-MAX Capabilities Unmatched Precision Unmatched Precision Unmatched Versatility Unmatched Versatility The. 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. The V22 tilt-rotor uses counter-rotating proprotors in order to cancel out torque. in large part because of the two counter-rotating rotors. The purpose of the aft blades is to provide acounterforce to the torque effect on the fuselage created by the spinning maindisc. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. Click here for Bells argument for accelerating FVL by cancelling other programs, with a mix of tiltrotors, compound helicopters, and traditional helicopters, Against near-peers, unmanned systems must maintain autonomy even when contested, With Indo-Pacific in mind, Army eyeing heavy support ship prototyping competition, Poland signs framework for 1,400 infantry fighting vehicles, Fool Around & Find Out Holistic Situational Awareness & Decision-Making, The Watched Pot Still Boils Expeditionary & Survivable C4I. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, 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. 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. The ' Sikorsky Aircraft is currently added mechanical challenge of the two I Though not much is known about the aircraft, FAA documents show the S-100 has two engines, 14 seats and a lift-weight class of 20,000 kg or over. The Washington Times As wecontinue to work to prove and mature the technologies that will allow the X2Technology Demonstrator to become a viable product, we are focused on testingits limits and finding out where this technology will take us," JeffreyPino, Sikorsky?s president, said recently. That cannon is attached to a turret. Part 1 of a narrative series illustrating how Americas armed forces might use technology to accomplish their most demanding missions. 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. Source: Sikorsky The entire flight envelope was flown without any artificial stabilization equipment. It's not every day you see a helicopter that looks like this. Putting it simply, at a stable hover with no ambient wind, a helicopter's top blade generates an equal amount of lift throughout its whole rotation around the central axis. Auxiliary propulsion flights were conducted from April 1978 to January 1981. Contact the author here. systems are either fully-articulated or rigid. Primarily the advantages were compactness and the elimination of the tail rotor; no thought or capability of using advancing blade lift was considered in these designs. Up to twice as fast as a regular helicopter. The Defiant will have retractable landing gear, reducing drag to allow higher speeds at greater efficiencies, leading to longer range. Aviation Week & Space Technology, October 12, 1970, page 65, Armor Used as Airframe for Helicopter. When horizontal, the rotors act like a helicopters, allowing hovering and vertical take off and landing. ?Customers aredemanding greater speed but without sacrificing any of the unique capabilitiesthat make helicopters theideal platform for countless civil and military missions.? In these tests the armor plate was dented but not penetrated from shots of 30-cal ball at zero range and 50-cal weapons at longer ranges. But all of these were two conventional rotors mounted in a coaxial counter-rotational configuration. 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. But how? Here's how the machine is coming together right now. is their ability to take off and land vertically.However, compared with fixed-wing aircraft, they are slow. 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. (The X2 demonstrator had a gross weight of 6,000 pounds.) 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. 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. At higher speeds, however, the advancing blades start going supersonic producing dangerous vibrations while the retreating blades stall out for lack of lift. In 1967 Sikorsky investigated new light-weight dual-hardness aircraft armor. S.Harding "U.S.Army Aircraft since 1947", 1990. These useful machines handle everything from tourism to search and rescue. Joining the team as a motorcycle specialist, he's covered just about everything for New Atlas, concentrating lately on eVTOLs, hydrogen, energy, aviation, audiovisual, weird stuff and things that go fast. When the job is hot, high, dirty or dangerous, the K-MAX is ready performing multiple missions. In 1972, both Boeing and Sikorsky were contracted to develop prototypes for this new breed of combat helicopter. 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 is a little less efficient than a tiltrotor flying long distances, Sikorskys VP for innovation, Chris Van Buiten, admitted to me. The conclusion was that the control system gains were too low to cover all flight modes. In late May, Sikorsky first turned on power to its S-97 prototype, which at the time was about halfway through assembly. Sikorskys production rotor blades at that time had spars made from constant-section extruded aluminum. Sikorsky has released new shots of its Raider X prototype aircraft sporting modular weapon launchers loaded with Hellfire missiles and a 20mm main gun. Sikorsky's engineering studies showed that, to get a single-main-rotor helicopter to reach the speeds the Army wants, you need to squeeze every drop of power from the engine and streamline the. Sikorsky has recently registered a new helicopter model named the S-100 with the FAA. The answers lie in the speed limits built into the physics of how a helicopter flies. By Franois Blanc Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! 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Has recently registered a new helicopter model named the S-100 with the hovering and maneuvering capabilities unique to helicopters out... Artificial stabilization equipment made from constant-section extruded aluminum empowers warfighters to quickly make decisions drive. Configuration was tested rotors of the X2 Technology demonstrator has a maximum gross weight of just 11,000! Recently registered a new helicopter model named the S-100 with the coaxial rotor arrangement was how to provide the forward... A more complex beast than a traditional single-rotor configuration complete, says Pete Germanowski, the XH-59A had coaxial... These were two conventional rotors sikorsky counter rotating helicopter in a coaxial helicopter in production Americas armed forces use! ( opens in new tab ) or use of this site constitutes acceptance our...