Curtiss-Wright (Booth No. 1855) of Parsippany, N.J., announced yesterday at Heli-Expo 2011 that it has received a contract from Sikorsky Aircraft to develop and supply blade-fold distributor units and digital air-data computers for the OEM’s CH-53K Super Stallion, a heavy-lift redesign and upgrade of the CH-53E for the U.S. Marine Corps.

The contract, according to Curtiss-Wright, has a total potential value of $16 million if development and all aircraft production options and phases are completed.

The blade-fold units process the require information to execute the folding or spreading of the main rotor blades, allowing use of the helicopters in the tight confines of shipboard access. The digital air-data computer provides flight-critical height and speed information to the cockpit and other important helicopter systems.