Bogosian: All-new helicopter needed to break speed and range barriers

There\nhave been a number of studies that have surfaced over the years that have\npointed to the disparity of technology investment of rotory wing in the Department\nof Defense relative to TACAIR aviation. They go back to the Vietnam era and\ncompare the forces relative to the number of incidents and losses and injuries.\nAnd you see where significant investments in fixed wing tactical fighters have\nput them at a much better posture relative to those issues than rotory wing\naviation.

We still\nexperience for the most part the same conditions that we experienced coming out\nof Vietnam.\nNow, we have more sophisticated platforms. [Current helicopters] have more power,\nthey have more capability, but essentially they operate down in a dirty environment\nclose to the fight and they haven't brought any great new technologies relative\nto speed and range.

We're\nalways limited by the fact that conventional rotory wing technology, which is\ncentered around the ability to hover and to have vertical flight, brings technical\nlimitations to those other considerations of speed and range.

Now, one of\nthe things that TACAIR has done is, by investing in the ability to fly faster\nand higher, they have brought a level of survivability to the force that they\ndidn't have during the Vietnam\nera. We have not made that same transition yet in rotary wing aviation.