October 16, 2024
Inside the Head-to-Head Helo Battle To Replace the Black Hawk
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“In a helicopter when you want to turn really hard, you slow down,” says Sikorsky-Boeing test pilot, Ed Henderscheid. “In the SB-1 you can turn as hard as a fixed wing airplane and the prop will maintain your speed. It allows the pilot to manipulate the flight path in ways we’ve never been able to before.”
“In a helicopter when you want to turn really hard, you slow down,” says Sikorsky-Boeing test pilot, Ed Henderscheid. “In the SB-1 you can turn as hard as a fixed wing airplane and the prop will maintain your speed. It allows the pilot to manipulate the flight path in ways we’ve never been able to before.”

In 2022 the Army will choose a new aircraft to replace its Reagan-era UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. Two contenders from Sikorsky-Boeing and Bell will battle it out to become the winner of the Service’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program and the Army’s next combat helo when it deploys in 2030.

But “helicopter” isn’t even the right word to describe these two aerial beasts.

Bell’s V-280 is actually a tilt-rotor, similar to the V-22 Osprey currently flown by the Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy but smaller and with a V-tail. Rather than relying on a single large main rotor for lift in forward flight and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) like a helicopter, it tilts two large rotors (called prop-rotors) at each of its wingtips 90 degrees from horizontal to vertical and back. It’s essentially an airplane in forward flight and twin-rotor helicopter in VTOL flight.

Meanwhile, Sikorsky-Boeing’s SB-1 might look like a normal helicopter, but it’s actually a “compound helicopter,” including stacked, counter-rotating main rotors, a pusher propeller, and aircraft-like rudders. The pusher-propeller can provide significant forward thrust, relieving the need to tilt its main rotor for forward flight. Counter-rotating main rotors give extra lift, stability and smoothness. This gives the SB-1 speed, climb, and VTOL advantages over normal helicopters.

Their designs stem from the Army’s desire for a multi-mission VTOL aircraft that flies much faster and farther than the workhorse Black Hawk. In fact, the Army wants its UH-60 replacement to be capable of a top speed of 230 knots (265 mph) or more, one-third faster than the 159-knot (183 mph) twin-engine Black Hawk.

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