PAUL LEWIS / WASHINGTON DC
Three-engined compact aircraft would be able to transport twice the load of CH-53E
Sikorsky has unveiled its concept for a future super heavylift rotorcraft that would be capable of transporting twice the load of a CH-53E, yet would be smaller than a UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter. The machine is being pitched to meet the US Army's Advanced Manoeuvre Transport (AMT) requirement to lift its Future Combat Systems (FCS) over extended ranges.
The concept, revealed by Sikorsky president Dean Borgman during a presentation at a joint US Army and Army Aviation Associations' conference in Washington DC, is a throwback to the company's CH-64 and Hughes XH-17 flying cranes of the 1950s and 1960s. The vehicle features a co-axial rotor design with a 39.6m (130ft) diameter, wide-chord blades and a small, flat fuselage. Two versions are shown (see diagram): one unmanned and the other with a glass cockpit in the nose.
It would be powered by three engines similar in power output to the CH-53E with a gross weight of 62,000kg (136,600lb) and an empty weight of 24,400kg. According to Borgman, the 160kt (296km/h) machine would be capable of lifting the 20t FCS over a 1,850km (1,000nm) range. This compares to the CH-53E's maximum take-off weight of 33,400kg and limited 93km range with 14,500kg maximum external payload.
AMT, formerly known as the Future Transport Rotorcraft (FTR), is intended to be a successor to the army's Boeing CH-47F Chinook and possibly the US Marine Corps' CH-53E, both of which are being modernised and remanufactured in the interim. Neither helicopter could lift the FCS, however, which is due to be depoyed from 2008, leaving the army relying on air force-operated Lockheed Martin C-130 fixed-wing transports.
In response to AMT, Bell has been promoting its concept of a Quad Tiltrotor (QTR), building on the smaller Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey technology.
Boeing Phantom Works is pushing its extremely short take-off and landing Advanced Theatre Transport (ATT), which features a partially tilting wing. The QTR and ATT are designed for internal loads and are structurally much larger than Sikorsky's concept.
Source: Flight International
