Here's Our First Look At Sikorsky and Boeing's Defiant Compound Helicopter Prototype - Defiant Compound Helicopter Prototype 2.jpg ...

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A team consisting of Sikorsky and Boeing has unveiled the prototype of its SB1
Defiant helicopter. The rotary wing aircraft's public debut is an important
development for the two companies, which recently had to push back plans for its
first flight yet again.

Lockheed Martin, of which Sikorsky is now a part, released pair of pictures of
the Defiant, which presently carries the U.S. civil registration code N100FV,
along with a brief official statement on Dec. 26, 2018. The SB1 is set to go
head-to-head with Bell Helicopter's V-280 Valor tilt-rotor, which you can read
about in more detail here, as part of the U.S. Army's Joint Multi-Role (JMR)
technology demonstration program. This project, in turn, will help inform the
requirements for "medium" segment of the larger Future Vertical Lift (FVL)
program, which is seeking replacements for its UH-60 Black Hawk transport
helicopters and AH-64 Apache gunships.

The Defiant is an advanced compound helicopter, which combines rigid, coaxial
rotors with a pusher propeller at the rear. This configuration offers increased
speed and greater maneuverability over traditional helicopters, with an expected
top speed that is more than 100 miles per hour faster than a Black Hawk. The
Sikorsky-Boeing team also says the SB1 will have improved stability while
hovering and be quieter than existing types.

The new helicopter draws heavily from previous work at Sikorsky on the X2 and
S-97 Raider designs. The X2, a technology demonstrator that the
Connecticut-headquartered firm first revealed in 2008, helped prove many of the
features present in the SB1, including the active vibration control that
reduces the noise inside the aircraft during flight.

The company also hopes that the S-97, a private venture that has been flying
since 2015, or a derivative thereof, could be a contender for the "light"
component of the FVL program, which is focused on developing an armed scout
rotorcraft akin to the now-retired OH-58D Kiowa Warrior. A Raider-based design
might also fulfill the requirements for other emerging programs, such as the
Army's proposed pilot-optional Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft Competitive
Prototype (FARA CP). Other services have expressed an interest in the results of
the FVL program, as well.

Boeing, which is separately working on a compound helicopter conversion kit for
the AH-64, brings its own extensive experience with advanced rotorcraft to the
partnership. The two companies also previously worked together on the abortive
RAH-66A Comanche stealth helicopter program, which the Army canceled in the
early 2000s after major cost-overruns. The SB1 name itself is meant to reflect
that the partnership is greater than the sum of its individual parts.


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