Aviation International reports that Sikorsky said that the “use of additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, digital tools, and other advanced processes[,] has reduced lead-time for aircraft components by more than 50 percent.” According to AIN, the “maturation of this technology across Sikorsky parent Lockheed Martin and its supplier base for both metal and composite materials is producing schedule, cost, and weight savings across systems.” With the help of additive manufacturing, Sikorsky’s Raider X competitive prototype is now 90 percent complete. However, “flight testing of both the Raider X and its competitor, the Bell 360 Invictus, has been delayed until October 2023 (the start of Fiscal Year 2024) at the earliest due to delays with the GE T901 improved turbine engine selected by the Army.”
Full Story (Aviation International)
Tag: Sikorsky
VAT Seeks Partner to Produce Updated, Certified Version of Sikorsky’s S-52 Helicopter
Aviation International News reports that “Florida-based kit helicopter maker Vertical Aviation Technologies (VAT) is seeking a strategic partner to produce an updated, certified version of the Sikorsky S-52.” VAT has built an “experimental kit version derived from that aircraft under the name Hummingbird since 1991 after acquiring the engineering data, flight-test data, and drawings from Sikorsky in 1987.” The new, certified version of the helicopter “will be known as the Hummingbird S-52L, which VAT said ‘has been redesigned with modifications, new technology, new materials, and processes, notably in terms of safety and performance.’” VAT recently acquired the type certificate for the S-52 and plans to “amend it with the new modifications and technology.” VAT President Brad Clark said that the “company has already conducted extensive pre-certification testing of the updated design.” Clark said, “We are seeking a strategic partner who shares our vision and can provide the needed capital.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)
Sikorsky’s Raider X Prototype is Now Over 85% Complete
Defense Daily reports that “Sikorsky’s build of its Raider X helicopter for the Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) competitive prototyping (CP) effort is now over 85 percent complete.” Aviation Week reports that “Sikorsky has reached the power-on milestone with its Raider X prototype, but like rival Bell, is awaiting delayed delivery of GE Aviation’s T901 turboshaft to complete assembly of its contender for” FARA program.
Full Story (Defense Daily); More Info (Aviation Week)
Sikorsky Innovations Director Sees Matrix as a Game-Changer for High-Risk Civil Missions
Aviation International News reports that Sikorsky Innovations Director Igor Cherepinsky “sees Matrix as a game-changer for high-risk civil missions, including night-time aerial firefighting and over-water search and rescue (SAR).” Sikorsky is currently “working with the FAA to certify the system, which uses a plethora of onboard sensors, lidar, and cameras mated to proprietary hardware and software. The system comes with a kit that converts virtually any aircraft to varying degrees of add-on fly-by-wire control that Cherepinsky likens to ‘lane assist’ on cars.” Key to the system “‘doing well’ [are] Sikorsky’s proprietary algorithms, which differentiate it from the guidance systems aboard existing drones that Cherepinsky characterizes as ‘sophisticated autopilots following waypoints.’” Cherepinsky said that “Matrix can be flown both line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight, and an aircraft equipped with it can have its mission changed from an operator ‘in the cockpit, backseat, Oklahoma, or the moon.’”
Full Story (Aviation International News)
Sikorsky Aircraft’s New President Promises to Keep Up Hiring Pace This Year
The Hartford (CT) Courant reports that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Sikorsky Aviation “hired more than 1,000 workers last year, doubling the number of workers brought on in 2019. Its workforce was 13,000 as of” February 28, and although Sikorsky President Paul Lemmo “would not say how many will be hired in the future, Sikorsky expects to ramp up, he said.” Sikorsky’s CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopter is at the “center of a 2016 deal with Connecticut that keeps manufacturing in the state until at least 2032,” and is “set for delivery later this year.” Meanwhile, as part of an Army competition, Sikorsky is “designing and building prototypes for the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft that will replace the Black Hawk and Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, a light-attack scout helicopter.” Lemmo said, “Those programs will determine our future for the next five years.”
Full Story (Hartford (CT) Courant)