The Sikorsky Raider X ‘competitive prototype’ (CP) for the US Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) is more than 85% complete, having progressed 50% faster through production and assembly compared to legacy programmes, resulting in a cost-effective ‘transformational aircraft’.
Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, has made significant progress on Raider X, which is a compound helicopter concept with two coaxial rotors and a single pusher propeller; earlier this month the aircraft was ‘weight on wheels’ at the Sikorsky Development Flight Centre in West Palm Beach, Florida. Raider X, which Sikorsky has begun ‘powering on’, has already completed nearly 50% of required System Acceptance Test procedures.
With proven worldwide supply chain partners, the helicopter will leverage advanced manufacturing processes currently in use today on the Black Hawk, Combat Rescue Helicopter and CH-53K. Lockheed Martin is leveraging an established, low-risk manufacturing capability augmented by a more than $600 million investment in ‘digital thread and advanced manufacturing’.
Furthermore, Raider X makes full use of Sikorsky’s ‘digital thread and virtual prototyping tools to maximise the capabilities of the aircraft while optimising its affordability and sustainability over the life cycle’.
Paul Lemmo, Sikorsky’s president, said: “The virtual models we use are highly reliable, physics-based simulations of our design that provide early discovery, minimise redesign and enable future upgrades to be efficient and affordable. With our X2 Technology, Raider X has the ability to grow, unlike a single main-rotor configuration.”
In addition, the build of Sikorsky’s second FARA fuselage is now complete and is being integrated into Sikorsky’s structural test programme where it will be used to validate the flight and ground loads capability of the airframe. These tests support the Raider X CP flight safety programme and provide data to ‘optimise and accelerate the design for the full weapons system’.