The future is already here -- at least in video form. I used my cell phone camera to copy video on display at Sikorsky's exhibit booth inside the gargantuan AUSA convention hall. Hope you enjoy.
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Sikorsky X2's potential future as a military helicopter
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on October 8, 2008 7:05 PM | Reply
Could this be the solution to tilt-rotor performance without the tilt-rotor problems? Considering the weird things blades do, can they control the drooping, flapping, etc when under + - G's? Is this going to be a Cheyenne redux?
I saw the X2 at HAI. The other question is, what happens when you scale the system up. The X2 is not much larger then a large homebuilt aircraft.
on October 8, 2008 7:40 PM | Reply
Those are all the big questions, and Sikorsky hopes the answer is yes to them all. Top speed for X2 is promised to be 250kts, but there is some skepticism that can be achieved. Tiltrotors are supposedly able to cruise around 300kts (although I've heard skepticism about the V-22's ability to do that, too!). I think the army is hoping for a higher speed solution from all new technologies like stop-fold rotor, CR/W or disc rotor. X2 would be one of the options -- along with the Piasecki/Boeing X-49 -- for the more practical compromise.
on October 8, 2008 8:53 PM | Reply
Fairey Rotodyne?
http://www.helis.com/50s/h_rotdyn.php
Of course the speed wasn't close to what they want now.
on October 8, 2008 9:53 PM | Reply
This looks like it is little more than the older XH-59 Advancing Blade Concept aircraft. Except instead of pusher jet engines, it has a pusher prop on the tail.
Do you know how much of the XH-59 went into the X2?
on October 8, 2008 9:59 PM | Reply
Correct! Sikorsky basically revived XH-59 ABC for X2. The latter adds fly-by-wire and modern avionics to hopefully overcome the vibration and crew overload issues that doomed ABC.
on October 8, 2008 11:16 PM | Reply
Kudo's to Jeff Pino and John Piasecki for hanging in there when "Horse Cavalry" myopia remained the order of the day for Army Aviation.
One can only hope that, even with the economic challenges to come, the Armed Forces will continue to see that it is time to jump into the late twentieth century for rotorcraft (not a typo by the way).
on October 9, 2008 12:10 AM | Reply
Anything at the convention on the DARPA Heliplane?
on October 9, 2008 12:12 AM | Reply
Sadly, if anything about Heliplane was there, I didn't see it.
on October 11, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply
Can the X2 do a rolling takeoff to increase payload/range?
on May 4, 2009 4:53 PM | Reply
Nice.
on July 2, 2009 3:41 PM | Reply
thats pretty cool, so this helicopter is a new concept for our military? It was sad that the comachee was cancelled but i certain the technology it used can be utilized in an upgraded apache attack helicopter