Sikorsky developing helicopters that cruise 66% faster than current ones

UTC’s Sikorsky Developing Faster Helicopter

By REUTERS, NEW YORK


The Sikorsky unit of United Technologies Corp. said June 1 it is developing a new helicopter capable of cruising at 250 knots (285 miles per hour) — up to 66 percent faster than helicopters now in service.

Sikorsky, Stratford, Conn., said it has completed design for the X2 Technology demonstrator helicopter and has begun manufacturing parts, aiming for a first flight by the end of 2006.

Sikorsky helicopters serve all five branches of the U.S. military, as well as industrial and commercial customers, for uses such as troop transfers, and air and sea rescue. The unit accounted for $605 million, or 6.4 percent, of United Technologies’ revenue in the first quarter.

Sikorsky would not set sales goals for the new model.

“We believe this technology is scalable,” said Sikorsky’s Ed Steadham. “(It has) a wide range of applications, both civil and military.”



I just hope that we make our attack helicopters faster.

Well if they do achieve 285mph at cruising speed that would be an achievement, and if that is only the cruising speed the max speed should be in the region of 350mph +

But, I was on the assumption that the theoretical fastest achievable speed for a Rotary Winged aircraft would be no more than 250mph due to the amount of shock waves that form, the above would take it well beyond the theoretical limits.

The current fastest helicopter is the Westland Lynx - achieving 249.10mph back in 1986.

How do Sikorsky plan to ovecome the technical problems? remove the Blades??? then this becomes a different aircraft entirely.

Spacemunkey

Maybe I will see one flying around since I am near the big sikorsky plant here in CT pretty often

Blackhawks on test flights are a dime a dozen

well the eurocopter broke the InAF record for the world's highest landing by landing on one point which cannot be superceeded.. THe peak of Mt. Everest itself!!

French pilots did it a few days back..

Originally posted by spacemunkey
Well if they do achieve 285mph at cruising speed that would be an achievement, and if that is only the cruising speed the max speed should be in the region of 350mph +

The top speed could stay the same, just look at the F/A-22. It has a faster cruising speed, but it's top speed is still about the same as the F-15. Yes I know we are talking helicopters and aircraft here. But I think its probably the same for both.

Originally posted by Daedalus3
well the eurocopter broke the InAF record for the world's highest landing by landing on one point which cannot be superceeded.. THe peak of Mt. Everest itself!!

French pilots did it a few days back..

That would so cool. Heli sking/boarding anyone?

We have a member here who works for Sikorsky, but I'm forgetting who it is....at the moment...

I would be interested in seeing how Sikorsky manages to avoid the problems with advancing blade stall.

I'm sure it's possible; but I doubt that such technology will show up on our attack helicopters any time soon, since the front-line AH is going to be the AH-64 variant for at least next 20 years.

In any event, speed of an AH -- or any other rotary wing aircraft -- is not a key driver so much as would be minimizing the logistics "tail", ensuring network-centricity, overall cost-effectiveness, payload, loiter time, etc.

I saw this in the paper today, seems pretty cool and quite a lot faster. First thing that came to mind was that it looked like a mix between a submarine and a helicopter.

Anyways heres a link to Sikorsky's site with a pic of it:

www.sikorsky.com...

^^^ At last they are doing something about it! This picture from the link;

reminds me very much of this one they published 25 years ago;

The X2 sort of reminds me of the Carter Copter.

Link

Possible, but the russians don't have any money left to build better helis... At least not for the moment...







[edit on 5-6-2005 by Figher Master FIN]

They still own most of the 3rd world export market for attack helicopters. After all, they are cheap,reliable and relatively good compared to American counterparts (Mi-24/35, MiL-28,Ka-50 compared to AH-1,AH-64D). I believe USAF is moving towards using drones like the Predator. Those guys who got their car fried by a Hellfire fired from the Predator will never forget that

Meanwhile, the Russians are trying to build a stealth attack helicopter. Try Ka-52 for it, with the Americans giving up on the Commache, the Russians will have the advantage of better Helos for a while.

Now that is one ugly helicopter!! It looks like a bath toy or something. It maybe fast and all but you wouldnt catch me flying around in one of those.