Sikorsky aims to shape the future with the unveiling here of its almost-flight-ready, X2 high-speed helicopter.

First flight will be "as soon as we are ready to fly. We are chomping at the bit to get airborne," X2 program manager Peter Grant told Show News.

The X2 is intended to prove technologies that will allow helicopters to cruise 100 kts faster at around 250 kts. "Helicopters have been stuck (by rotor aerodynamics) at around 160 kts and this really breaks out of the mold," explained Steve Estill, vp of worldwide sales. "This is a real game-changer - it will go faster and further at the same time."

Key to the X2 is a coaxial rotor system that is optimized for all regimes of flight by a fly-by-wire control system. This slows the blades at high speeds to prevent their tips going supersonic, maximizing lift and minimizing drag. Unlike a traditional helicopter, the rotor blades are relieved of having to provide forward propulsion by a large pusher propeller at the rear of the fuselage.

So far the aerospace industry's solution to high speed, vertical flight has been the hugely complex tiltrotor, a hybrid airplane with rotors. The X2, says Estill, differs markedly in that it is still a helicopter "that can go fast, can autorotate, hover, and fly nap of the earth." Most tiltrotor missions to date appear to be of short duration rather than long range, the scenario where the X2 technology is most competitive, he notes.

The X2 is especially well suited to missions such as flying fast to oil rigs, which would call for its technologies to be developed into a light to intermediate twin of the same size as the 12-passenger S-76 or 19-passenger S-92.

"We will listen to the industry here at Heli-Expo and start formulating what the first commercial product will be," Estill said. The X2 is scaleable, with some studies showing that a heavy lift version is possible that can carry up to 20 tons internally or 40 tons externally and still cruise at up to 250 kts.

The timetable? "It will probably take ten to 12 years," he said.