Americans accelerate their "helicopter of the future"
The high-speed attack helicopter is the fruit of the desires of the military of a number of countries. Many of them are slowly moving forward in the realization of this dream. Back in the 70s of the last century, the American company Sikorsky presented a prototype of the S-69 helicopter, which developed a speed of 518 km / h. The developments on the project were later used during the experimental X-2 program, which was later replaced by the S-97 Raider project.
Later, Boeing joined the research, and the experimental helicopter was named SB-1 Defiant (SB - Sikorsky-Boeing).
On October 12, the demonstrator set another own flight speed record, developing 457 km / h. According to the press service of Sikorsky, the test flight showed the correct choice of technical solutions during the creation of the rotorcraft. Last time the helicopter flew at 420 km / h.
It is noted that the achieved speed is not the limit, since 460 km / h is only the planned cruising speed of the future combat helicopter. The maximum, according to the plans of the developers, will exceed 500 km / h.
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