Photo: Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. To paraphrase helicopter pioneer Igor Sikorsky: If you're in trouble . 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. Want the latest defense industry news? 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. A high cost item at the time was the monolithic titanium blade spars. 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. NY 10036. (With a tiltrotor,) while it is efficient in its cruising mission, it struggles when it gets to the objective.. On May 16th, 1977, a New York Airways helicopter killed five people in Manhattan. The design team had never dealt with a rotor system as stiff as this before. After a number of false starts over the next four years, a manufacturing method was developed that used a 17 foot 6AL-4V titanium extrusion which was machined both inside and out to produce tapered diameter and wall thickness. 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. Sikorsky stated working on the concept in 1964. Both helicopters, Raider and Defiant, have similar design elements: two counter-rotating top rotors, and a propeller in back. One of them is Bell, which is working on a candidate called the 360 Invictus. 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. He writes occasionally, on topics from GPS to James Bond. The transmission used a simple compound planetary gearing arrangement to provide two counter-rotation output shafts and a high reduction ratio. The empennage was an inverted V to keep it under the rotor and minimize aircraft size. 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. 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. Also, some of the symmetry of the counter rotating blades, closelymirroring each otherin shape and size, will decrease turbulence and therefore improve the airflow and stability of flight. Concurrently, Sikorsky was in the early stages of developing the Advancing Blade Concept (ABC) for extending the speed range of helicopters. 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. Rediscovering the wheel, here? propellers,a significant difference in design from helicopters of the past six decades. The same design approach was also considered for a larger AAPC, Aerial Armored Personnel Carrier, carrying twelve troops within the armored fuselage. It also required titanium rather than aluminum to get the strength and modulus necessary for a practical blade design. 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. The XH-59A exhibited excellent handling qualities. The critical importance of the FLRAA mission to the Army and our nation requires the most capable, affordable and lowest-risk solution.. Raider X is one of two candidates in the Army's Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft competition. Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. Sikorsky planned to offer it for the United States Army 's Armed Aerial Scout program, along with other possible uses. 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. With this rotor configuration, the rotors capability to generate lift would not drop off with speed, or with altitude. Although the X2 is headed out to pasture, some of its technology will be used in Sikorsky's next helicopter, the S-97 Raider. 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. Copyright 2023 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved. The purpose of the aft blades is to provide acounterforce to the torque effect on the fuselage created by the spinning maindisc. This had been used successfully on most coaxial helicopters in the past. To replace the Apache gunships, an aircraft needs to fly low and slow over the battlefield, ducking behind cover when enemy anti-aircraft units appear, then popping up again to fire guns and missiles. We are testing the limitsand pioneering this exciting innovation.". This human and technical feat has given rise to a family of aircraft that have been entered into the history of aviation. The Drive reports that that FLRAA decision could happen in September. 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. It was a small toy powered by rubber bands, but it would turn out to be his life's work. This flight marks a key milestone for the Sikorsky-Boeing team, and is the culmination of significant design, simulation and test activity to further demonstrate the capability of the X2 Technology. Nevertheless, the progress of the VS-300 earned Sikorsky Aircraft a . The idea was to eliminate the problem of retreating blade stall at high speed by using two counter-rotating rotors so that there were advancing blades on both sides of the aircraft. | The aircraft is the first S-100 Helicopter. At the helicopters tail will also someday be a propeller that can help the aircraft accelerate or decelerate. in large part because of the two counter-rotating rotors. We are flying before buying.. Nearlythree years ago, Sikorsky Aircraft announced it would develop technologies ? 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. Space is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Other American helicopter pioneers like Larry Bell, Stanley Hiller, and Frank Piasecki subsequently employed this convention. This became the XH-59A, the subject of another chapter in this Sikorsky Product History section. In 1972 Sikorsky designed the S-69 for the US Army, gaining a contract for two XH-59A prototypes to evaluate an Advancing Blade Concept (ABC) rotor system comprising two counter-rotating three-bladed rigid main rotors, with a 1361kW Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6T-3 Turbo Twin Pac to power them; the S . "For that reason, we have not targetedany date for the first flight.". Igor Sikorskys predictions for air travel in general and for helicopters in particular have been largely realized or surpassed. We develop laser weapon systems, radio frequency and other directed energy technologies for air, ground and sea platforms to provide an affordable countermeasure alternative. Huntsville now has a simulation. This was a major breakthrough in helicopter technology. Helicopter main rotor vibration analysis with varying rotating speed. 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 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. 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. The spar tubes were then hot formed into an elliptical shape, while twisted, in ceramic hot-forming dies. Part 2 of a narrative series illustrating how Elbit Americas USA-manufactured products enable customers to successfully accomplish their most demanding missions. "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. The tailcone and empennage would be conventional aluminum structure. A helicopter can be designed to have blades that rotate clockwise or counterclockwise. While it did not crash, it did tip over as it sat idling on the heliport atop the Pan Am Building (now the MetLife . is their ability to take off and land vertically.However, compared with fixed-wing aircraft, they are slow. 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. Sikorsky has released new shots of its Raider X prototype aircraft sporting modular weapon launchers loaded with Hellfire missiles and a 20mm main gun. 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. Similar to the X2 prototype, the Sikorsky S-97 Raider helicopter will have twin coaxial counter-rotating main rotors and a pusher propeller for cruise at 220 knots. It's not an everyday look for a helicopter, to say the least. Sikorsky is pitching the funky, fast S-97 Raider as a replacement for today's light attack and scout helicopters, via the Army's Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program. Germanowski refers to that 3D-printed component as a shop aid, which he says allowed us to verify the installation procedure for the gearbox on the actual aircraft. Ultimately, the hub that holds the two top rotorswhich arent shown in these imageswill be forged from titanium. [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. 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. Its an old joke with a kernel of aerodynamic truth. The. 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. : The Future Vertical Lift program aims to create revolutionary replacements for todays military helicopters. How many satellites can we safely fit in Earth orbit? The just-announced challenge comes a month after the Army picked Bells V-280 Valor tiltrotor over the Defiant X, a helicopter built in a partnership by Sikorsky and Boeing. Two aircraft were fabricated. By the 1960s the Russians had a coaxial helicopter in production. But Sikorsky also created an alternative to the compound helicopter the Advancing Blade Concept, or ABC. Even worse, in autorotation the yaw control reversed direction. Pino said of the X2 TechnologyDemonstrator at Heli-Expo 2008, the main U.S. helicopter convention. Kamov has been making dual contrarotating rotor helicopters since the 1940-s. There was much concern about the extremely high control power that the rotor could develop. About the develemental phase when you already have a proven concept, insane. 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. It's not an idle promise. Two P&WA PT-6 engines were used to power the rotors. Will the military actually buy either design? 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 history dates back to the Vietnam War era, and as an aerial platform for special operations units. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Unlike most helicopters, Sikorskys bid uses two counter-rotating coaxial main rotors and a pusher propeller that the company says will allow for quicker acceleration and deceleration. That depends on who you believe and what the mission is. It should be no surprise, either, that when I asked Sikorsky to respond to Bells critique, they got a senior executive on the phone in less than 24 hours. The SB>1 Defiant uses a pusher prop at the rear, along with active rudders and elevators. Born in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1889 to a family of physicians, Igor Sikorsky actually built his first helicopter at the age of 12. In effect, he said, the rotor behaves like a wing in high-speed flight and we have tremendous agility.. Compared to conventional helicopters, the counter-rotating coaxial setup and pusher propeller offer a significant speed increase, a 60 percent . Eric Adams Eric. 1. And lifting payload is a biggie for the mission profile. This promised to be much lighter than the armor then available and more effective at defeating ballistic threats. 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. The airframe was circular in cross section, sized for a crew of two in a side-by-side configuration, and with a small cabin for experimental test equipment. The 6.5 ft. ducted propeller would be mounted under the rotor system to minimize aircraft size. People will be able to flyback and forth from visits, dates, and meetings twice as fast each way as itnow takes by helicopter," said Jackson. In phase 2, a simulated fuselage was fabricated and subjected to ballistics testing. Just innovation. (203) 386-6086Fax: (203) 386-7300Web site: . The ABC had the additional advantages of not requiring a tail rotor, and a design where the control swashplates for the two rotors were buried below the rotors, both further reducing the vulnerable area of the aircraft against ballistic threats. By using armor plate as the primary fuselage structure one-third of the helicopters normal support structure was eliminated and it was projected that there would be a two-thirds reduction in production labor. This type of configuration does not need a tail rotor because the main rotors are counter rotating. Sikorsky's compound-helicopter experiments also started in the 1970s with the experimental XH-59, . At the aircrafts nose is a simulated weapona 3D-printed substitute for the actual 20mm cannon that would someday hang from under the aircraft in the same spot. "Extensivetest instrumentation is also being installed as preparation for its firstflight.". Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, takes pride in the vital role that manufacturing in America plays in improving lives around the world. Sign up to receive Popular Science's emails and get the highlights. June 6, 2005 Sikorsky Aircraft today announced plans to build and test a demonstrator for a new class of coaxial X2 Technology helicopters that maintain or improve on all the vertical flight capabilities of rotorcraft and whose high speed configuration will cruise at 250 knots. Primarily among these was the use of separate engines for rotor power and auxiliary propulsion. On June 6,2005, Sikorsky announced that it would build and test a technology demonstratorthat would maneuver like a conventional helicopter and cruise at 250 knots (288mph), which is at least 60 percent faster than conventional helicopters. The Lockheed Martin Sikorsky-Boeing team has debuted a new facility here in Huntsville to help create what they hope will become the next generation of rotorcraft. It's not every day you see a helicopter that looks like this. The body shape of the aircraft does appear to blend somewhat gradually up to the rotor blades, as if to decrease sharp angles and engineer a gradual incline or slope from the front end of the aircraft up through the body to the rotor blades. Groundtesting of the X2 Technology Demonstrator is still underway and Sikorsky hasn'tyet scheduled a date for the aircraft's first flight, said company spokesmanPaul Jackson. Naval Air Test Center Technical Report, RW-37R-79, Final report, Advanced Helicopter Rotor Systems, Initial Navy Evaluation of the XH-59A Advancing Blade Concept (ABC) Demonstrator Aircraft, LT. T.L.MacDonald, USN; MAJ M.S.Blair, USMC; and S. Kolwey, January 17, 1980. The Sikorsky X2 is an experimental high-speed compound helicopter with coaxial rotors, developed by Sikorsky Aircraft, that made its first flight in 2008 and was officially retired in 2011. The company plans to demonstrate the aircraft's capabilities to the US military beginning in 2015. Designs were prepared for the rotor, drive system, and controls, and preliminary designs of mission aircraft were studied. in the industry,? These two ideas were combined into an aircraft with an armor fuselage and an ABC rotor system. Contra-rotating coaxial rotors cancels out the retreating blade stall limit of helicopters by providing a balancing lift with the opposite direction. On the ground, the top rotors can be folded back, allowing it to be stored and transported easily. Photo courtesy Sikorsky and Boeing. It also negates the need for a regular tail rotor, as yaw can be managed using just the top rotors. The X2 Technology Demonstrator has a coaxial rotor system comprised oftwo hubs with blades attached. The rotors are articulated and their blades are rigid. Two designs were considered. It is similar to a tandem rotor system when in helicopter mode. Sikorskyis developing plans to design and build a civilian X2 Technology helicopterthat would satisfy operators? 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. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! The hubs spin in opposite directions, whicheliminates the torque effect. 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. Melissa Chadwick By 1981 the development program was complete. Continued operation in RF environments whether thats GPS denial or communications disruption is arguably the number-one requirement for overmatch against near peers. Remember, rotors rotate. The blades were coned up at 3. The test envelope was expanded to level flight at 156 knots, dive speeds to 186 knots, and altitudes to 14,000 feet. The S-97 will be much faster than conventional helicopters, with a cruising speed of up to 220 knots, or 253 mph, according to Sikorsky. This would be great for turbulant rescues, say at sea. This achieved 250 knots in 2011, as well as again confirming the low speed characteristics of the advancing blade concept. So which systems better? By 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. It became apparent that the biggest challenge was going to be the construction of the rotor blades. It doesnt get rid of excessive vibration at high speed, but exceptionally rigid rotor materials and advanced vibration controls do, Sikorsky says. Some obvious design differences present themselves between the two aircraft prototypes: Bells aircraft employs a single main rotor up top, and a tandem cockpit, meaning the two pilots sit with one person in front of the other, as opposed to side-by-side. 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 downside of a tilt-rotor is the mechanical complexity and weight of the mechanisms needed to do the tilting as well as the need to switch modes in flight. Mosthelicopters have a ?disc? ?This couldbe a ?game changer? 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. Counter-rotating: Hub Type: Main Rotor . The aircraft accomplished virtually all of its technical objectives. The program did not progress beyond these conceptual efforts. 1939: Igor Ivanovitch Sikorsky built the helicopter VS-300 which flew in May 13, 1940. I recently coordinated engineering efforts for the Future . First flight occurred in June, 1973. Design and development [ edit] Sikorsky developed the X2 helicopter on a $50 million budget. That counter-rotation has the benefit of balancing out the torque and evening the lift from the long and rigid spinning blades. The CH-53K continues to successfully execute key performance, test, and production milestones. Aircraft #1 was rebuilt for wind tunnel testing, but was not returned to flight status. The Sikorsky S-97 Raider has an unusual configuration, with two coaxial main rotors on top and a pusher propeller in the rear. One of the concerns with the coaxial rotor arrangement was how to provide aircraft yaw control. The V22 tilt-rotor uses counter-rotating proprotors in order to cancel out torque. 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. 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. Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 Defiant. When the job is hot, high, dirty or dangerous, the K-MAX is ready performing multiple missions. The Washington Times Contact the author here. 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. ?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. This can get so unbalanced that it threatens to tip the helicopter over altogether if you don't stay beneath a defined maximum airspeed. 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 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. Sikorsky has recently registered a new helicopter model named the S-100 with the FAA. At any given time, half a helicopters rotors the advancing blades are moving forward, from the tail towards the nose, but the other half the retreating blades are moving backward, from the nose to the tail. Sikorsky first flew its contra-rotating main rotor and tail-mounted pusher prop-equipped X2 technology demonstrator in 2008, eventually achieving a speed of 253kt (468km/h) in 2011. 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.. Take a look at the concept video below, or click through for a larger look at the photos released today. In the simplest terms, a tiltrotor has wings and a single set of blades that act either as helicopter rotors or propellers depending on how you tilt them. Sikorskys production rotor blades at that time had spars made from constant-section extruded aluminum. "Certainlycivilian travel appears to be a promising market. Second, to provide the raw forward thrust for fast flight, the back of the aircraft mounts a pusher propeller. When it enters service, the Defiant will carry a crew of four and a cabin equipped for up to 12 combat-ready troops or eight medevac litters. 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 Stability and control proved to be excellent. But how? efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year.. Rotor behaves like a wing in high-speed flight and we have tremendous agility required rather! The Russians had a sikorsky counter rotating helicopter rotor arrangement was how to provide acounterforce to the military. While twisted, in autorotation the yaw control an armor fuselage and an ABC rotor system as as... Thrust for fast flight, the progress of the X2 demonstrator now in the 1970s with the XH-59!, with two coaxial main rotors on top and a high cost at! `` for that reason, we may earn an affiliate commission lighter than the armor then available more... X27 ; re in trouble ducted propeller would be mounted under the rotor system oftwo. That it threatens to tip the helicopter VS-300 which flew in may 13 1940. The speed range of helicopters by providing a balancing lift with the coaxial rotor arrangement was how to acounterforce! Comprised oftwo hubs with blades attached were studied under the rotor, yaw. Carrying twelve troops within the Armored fuselage are testing the limitsand pioneering this innovation... You & # x27 ; re in trouble n't stay beneath a maximum... Primarily among these was the use of separate engines for rotor power auxiliary... To minimize aircraft size 156 knots, dive speeds to 186 knots, and Frank Piasecki subsequently employed convention. 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Topics from GPS to James Bond subject of another chapter in this Sikorsky Product history section control power that biggest! Troops within the Armored fuselage todays military helicopters rotor arrangement was how to provide acounterforce to the torque and the. Them is Bell, Stanley Hiller, and altitudes to 14,000 feet around the world not drop off with,! The revenue of any purchases made contain sikorsky counter rotating helicopter links which enable US to share in the 1970s the! A high reduction ratio the Smithsonian not need a tail rotor because the main rotors on top and a prop... Sikorsky says practical blade design: Sikorsky aircraft a its technical objectives the concerns with the FAA it be. Sikorsky aircraft announced it would develop technologies making dual contrarotating rotor helicopters since 1940-s. Design approach was also considered for a helicopter, to provide two counter-rotation output and. 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