Sikorsky-Boeing

New US military helicopter conducts 1st flight

The new Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 DEFIANT helicopter, which promises to be twice as fast as its predecessors, completed its first flight on Thursday, according to a statement from Boeing and Sikorsky.
A video shows the aircraft flying at low altitude on the runway, making a turn, stopping in the air and landing.
The helicopter has two coaxial rotors, but its main peculiarity is the construction of the tail. This ends with a powerful third rotor driven rearward and located in the center of the dual vertical stabilizer of the empennage.
"DEFIANT is designed to fly almost twice as fast and is twice the range of conventional helicopters, maintaining the same or even better performance than ordinary low-speed helicopters," said Dan Spoor, Sikorsky's vice president.
The new project aims to meet the request of the US authorities to significantly increase the speed and autonomy of the helicopter, the statement said.
The aircraft, developed by Boeing, Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin, is competing in the US Army's Future Vertical Lift program to select a new generation of military helicopters and replace the UH-60 Black Hawk, AH-64 Apache, CH- 47 Chinook and OH-58 Kiowa. Replacement times vary by category. For light helicopters, the start is planned for 2030, for the medium-sized ones - for 2027-2028 and, in the case of the heavy ones - for 2035.
"The data received from DEFIANT will help ground forces develop the requirements for the new light helicopters which are expected to enter service in the 2030s," the statement said.

Source: Boeing