March 6 will be a big day for helicopter OEMs and could shape the future of the industry for decades to come. Phase One proposals are due into the Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate by tomorrow that likely will lead to the construction of Joint Multi-Role demonstration aircraft (JMR TD) that could fly as early as 2017 and lead to the start of production aircraft between 2025 and 2030.
Gyrodyne
February 12, 2012 - 3:20pm
The X3 compound helicopter demonstrator is set to resume flights this month. Data analysis from the first two flight-test campaigns has prompted new questions, chief technology officer Jean-Michel Billig told AIN, and the launch of a third test campaign has been scheduled. The testing will explore the behavior of the main rotor at high speed. Some other goals relate to the Fadec and the link between rotor rpm and aircraft speed. Billing said the first product using X3 technology may appear in 2020 or 2021.
February 12, 2012 - 6:45am
The X3 compound helicopter demonstrator is to resume flights this month. Data analysis from the first two flight-test campaigns has prompted new questions, chief technology officer Jean-Michel Billig told AIN, and the launch of a third test campaign has been scheduled. The testing will explore the behavior of the main rotor at high speed. Some other goals relate to the Fadec and the link between rotor rpm and aircraft speed.
December 20, 2011 - 4:05pm
Eurocopter is mulling a third flight-test phase for its X3 compound helicopter demonstrator, in light of the “very good outcome” of the second phase. The third phase would “investigate further potential of the concept.” When the helicopter reached 232 knots last spring, during phase two, it was operating at about 75 to 80 percent power.
July 26, 2011 - 7:30am
Sikorsky’s X2 technology demonstrator, a high-speed semi-compound helicopter, flew for the last time on July 14 at the company’s West Palm Beach, Fla. test center, in front of a number of the manufacturer’s military and commercial customers. The sortie took place without the central hub fairing (also known as an “aero sail”), which will not be tested in flight.
June 19, 2011 - 7:00pm
Eurocopter has delivered what it hopes will prove to be the X-Factor to this year’s Paris Air Show. The daily flying display this week features its new its X3 (“x cubed”) compound helicopter demonstrator, a modified AS 365 Dauphin with a conventional main rotor, two propellers on wingstubs and a conventional empennage.
December 16, 2010 - 11:08am
Eurocopter’s compound helicopter demonstrator, the X3 (x cube), met its first speed target–180 ktas in level flight at “reduced engine power,” the manufacturer announced last week. The aircraft features a conventional main rotor, two propellers on stub wings and no tail rotor.
October 26, 2010 - 1:24pm
Eurocopter unveiled a compound helicopter demonstrator called the X3 (“x cubed”) designed to cruise at 220 knots–about 50 percent faster than today’s medium twins. The helicopter manufacturer believes it has found a sweet spot at a target speed that should make time savings profitable, and the technology could be incorporated into helicopters in less than a decade.
September 28, 2010 - 10:52am
Eurocopter yesterday unveiled the X3 (“x cube”) demonstrator, a compound helicopter with a 220-knot cruise speed. The aircraft first flew on September 6 in hover, and is scheduled to fly again on Thursday. Some 100 flight-test hours are planned in the next 18 months, with the target speed expected to be reached in the first quarter.
September 21, 2010 - 9:37am
The fact that Sikorsky’s experimental X2 is a compound helicopter will not exclude it from setting an official helicopter speed record, according to Marcel Meyer, executive officer of records for the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the world aviation record sanctioning body.
