Helicopters - New developments in the works - Flight Global

HELI-EXPO: Lockheed-Sikorsky considers new commercial helicopters

·         01 MARCH, 2016 - BY: JAMES DREW - LOUISVILLE

Sikorsky is looking beyond the S-76D and S-92 to new commercial products, potentially clean-sheet designs in the medium or light classes or “significant upgrades” to existing designs.

Dana Fiatarone, vice-president of Sikorsky commercial systems and services, says Lockheed Martin’s leadership is keenly interested in what new products its now in-house helicopter business unit can deliver. Studies are now underway to determine the market’s requirements for future developments, he says.

“We have started talking about what might be next for us, whether that’s a medium aircraft, a lighter aircraft or significant upgrades to our existing portfolio,” Fiatarone said at Heli-Expo today.

Speaking alongside Fiatarone, Sikorsky president Dan Schultz says Lockheed, which acquired Sikorsky in November, is “100% committed” to the commercial helicopter market.

It can draw on new technologies from both Sikorsky’s innovations group and Lockheed’s Skunk Works unit to enhance civil and military programmes.

Fiatarone and Schultz are wary about pointing to commercial derivatives of the company’s compound-coaxial, rigid-rotor S-97 Raider and SB-1 defiant, saying that while the X2-derived technology almost doubles speed and range, it will not necessarily make its operators more money.

However, speed is attractive to the civil emergency medical services (EMS) and search-and-rescue (SAR) segments, the company says, but there needs to be customer interest and “buy-in” to proceed.

“What the S-97 can do is change the speed/distance equation, so if it takes you 2.5h to get to an oil rig today, and you can get there in less than an hour, then that changes the dynamic for you,” says Schultz.

Sikorsky does plan to introduce fly-by-wire technology on the commercial side, potentially systems drawn from the S-92-based Canadian CH-148 Cyclone programme and other military projects.

The company is also pushing autonomy, not remotely-piloted aircraft, through its Matrix initiative for the commercial sector. “We want to see single-pilot helicopters with automation by systems,” says Fiatarone.