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Sikorsky S-92 Damages Due To Hard Landing
Sikorsky S-92 Damages Due To Hard Landing. A Sikorsky S-97 Raider crashed at 07:30 on August 2 at the company's flight test center in West Palm Beach, Florida, Lockheed Martin said.Sikorsky says two crew members aboard the S-97 escaped from a hard landing without injuries.
The S-97 was in a float during a test flight when the incident occurred, Sikorsky says. The aircraft has rigid coaxial rotors and a variable pitch thrust propeller, a configuration designed to achieve speeds above 220 knots in level flight.
Sikorsky launched the prototype with a USD 200 million investment in October 2010, when the US military followed a replacement for the Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior Helicopter.
The army withdrew the OH-58D fleet two years ago without a replacement. However, the S-97 remained useful as a test platform for the Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant high-speed, a demonstrator and candidate for the Future Lift Vertical Army's acquisition program.
Both the S-97 and SB-1 are based on technology developed by the X2, a proof of concept that set a new speed record for a composite helicopter using the coaxial / propeller-impeller configuration.
In a statement issued after the hard landing, Sikorsky did not comment on the future of the S-97 program, but referred to the fundamental X2 technology. "We intend to continue advancing X2 technology," says Sikorsky.
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