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Sikorsky Has Formula for Fast Helicopter on Fast Track
In an effort to marry the best assets of a helicopter (such as the ability to hover) with those of an airplane (like the capacity for speed), Sikorsky is cobbling together a hybrid that it says solves the main issue faced by aircraft like the JSF and the V-22 Tiltrotor — having to change mechanical configuration to go from hover to forward flight.
“Customers have decided they needed both hover and speed,” says Jeff Pino, Sikorsky Aircraft’s senior vp. Using components and technologies largely gathered from other programs and Sikorsky’s newly acquired Schweizer Aircraft Co., Sikorsky has come up with a design it says will both hover and fly at 250 kts at 10,000 ft in standard conditions with no configuration changes. The design uses coaxial, counter-rotating main disks and six-bladed pusher prop on the back end.
The idea, which Sikorsky is calling the X2 Technology, is more than just a notion. Pino says Sikorsky will fly an X2 vehicle demonstrator before the end of 2006 using one engine — a T800-801 by LHTEC — powering both the four-bladed main rotors and the tail prop. To make the schedule and save costs, Sikorsky is using off-the-shelf technologies wherever possible, including digital flight control techniques developed for the now-defunct Comanche attack helicopter, active vibration control systems from the S-92, and a main rotor hub that used to be a tail rotor hub from a CH-53. Pino says the Comanche technologies, along with proprietary work done by Sikorsky, provide about a 50% decrease in flat-plate geometry drag of the main rotor, a breakthrough that in part will allow such a high cruise speed for a helicopter. Pino says Eagle Aviation Technologies will supply the advanced composite, high-speed rigid main rotor blades, Aero Composites Inc. will build the six-bladed back prop, Honeywell will provide the fly-by-wire system, and Moog will build the vibration suppression system.
Schweizer, which Pino says Sikorsky is calling its “Hawkworks,” will do the rapid prototyping, an ability Pino says was part of the reason Sikorsky bought Schweizer. As a risk reduction move, Pino says Sikorsky by year-end will test the X2’s single-stick fly-by-wire system in a Schweizer 333. While Pino says the X2 is not meant to be a production aircraft, the technologies will be scaleable to cover both manned and unmanned applications, possibly as large as a shipboard heavy lift vehicle. —John Croft
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