Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Helicopter Reaches Speeds of More Than 200kt Written 17 June 2020
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Boeing-Sikorsky flight demo of the SB-1 Defiant at the William P. Gwinn airport in West Palm Beach, FL, 20 Feb. 2020. | Sgt. Dana Clarke, U.S. Army; Wikipedia; Public Domain
FlightGlobal reports that in a June 9 flight test, the Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant co-axial helicopter “passed 200kt for the first time while flying at Sikorsky’s West Palm Beach Development Flight Test Center in Florida, The Boeing Company and Sikorsky announced on 16 June.” The helicopter topped out at 205kt (380 km/hr), but the Sikorsky-Boeing team “is pushing for the helicopter to top 250kt.” The US Army cruise speed requirement for the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program is 230kt. The SB-1 “is competing against Bell’s V-280 Valor tiltrotor” in the FRLAA program. That aircraft “has reached a top speed of 300kt.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)