Image Credit: Flickr Pavel Vanka. The MiN is a modern attack helicopter with a maximum speed of mph, competing closely with the NH90 and Ka Alligator helicopter, which offer the same speed. Image Credit: Vladislav Perminov Flickr. Using composite rotor blades has also improved their fatigue strength and damage tolerance in addition to improving the aerodynamic performance. Your Name required. Your Email required. Your Phone required. Your Phone.
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Additional Info. Different sources quote different numbers when it comes to helicopter speed but below are some choppers of different sizes that offer impressive speeds and other characteristics:. Helicopter speed is also affected by the type of chopper it is, which includes both civilian and military helicopters. These are truly some of the fastest helicopters in the world today but keep in mind that they do not include some of the helicopters used by the military, which often have the capability to go much faster.
There are many different ways to compare the average speeds of the helicopters being used today but suffice it to say that average two-seaters with smaller engines can fly at 90 to knots while a four-seater can usually go at around to knots. This new aircraft took off for the first time on 18 September During the next five years, the XHA was tested both as a pure helicopter and with jet engines attached to the sides of the fuselage to provide extra propulsion.
Because it was intended as an inexpensive proof of concept, the XHA had features, such as the strapped-on jets, that no production vehicle would likely have. The heavy and fuel-hungry jets pushed the aircraft to high speed—with some significant problems. For example, the helicopter vibrated so much at these higher speeds that its pilots struggled to control it.
And when hovering, the vehicle had an annoying tendency to oscillate rather than float smoothly in place. A few years ago, however, Sikorsky decided to review its portfolio of designs to see whether technological advances in avionics and control systems might be able to address the earlier problems.
Engineers at Sikorsky were particularly interested in seeing whether the company could rescue its Advancing Blade Concept.
The first thing to tackle was the vibration problem. This technique involves a dozen or so vibration sensors distributed around the helicopter, a control computer, and several vibratory-force generators placed at select spots on the airframe. To make the revived helicopter fly more efficiently at high speeds, specialists in aerodynamics turned to computer-aided design tools to craft the airfoils, rotors, and fuselage.
The modeling software indicated that this rotor would have significantly less drag and more lift than what was used in the XHA. Then there was the problem of the jet engines. Simply adding jet engines to the helicopter does speed it up, but they are noisy and fuel hungry. So the X2 design team decided to use a variable-pitch pusher propeller at the aft end of the fuselage to provide forward thrust when needed.
That propeller is good not only for acceleration but also for rapid deceleration. Another critical advance was in the controls. The XHA had used a mechanical flight control system that was both heavy and extremely complex. It commanded six hydraulic servoactuators to change the pitch of the rotors three actuators per rotor , operated the rudders, and controlled the two auxiliary jet engines.
The system contains three redundant flight-control computers just to be safe. If one of them fails, it instantly shuts down, allowing the aircraft to fly normally on the remaining two computers. The different sensors on which the flight-control system relies are also installed in triplicate. The engine Sikorsky ended up choosing for the X2, an LHTEC T turboshaft, is a modern, state-of-the-art design that might well serve for a production vehicle.
The rotors, propeller, and engine are coupled together with gearboxes and shafts. The X2 prototype made its first test hop on 27 August , in Elmira, N. Several more low-speed flight tests also went off without a hitch. To venture to higher speeds, Sikorsky sent the test team to its flight center in West Palm Beach, Fla.
On the day of that flight, in August of this year, the test team got started at the crack of dawn. To ensure that the pilots would be flying in smooth air, the crew had to be on site by a. The crew rolled the aircraft out onto the runway, where a dozen safety officers in bright orange jumpsuits and noise-canceling headsets were on patrol. Two chase vehicles were there to observe the test flight—another helicopter and a fixed-wing turboprop. The latter would be needed to keep up with the X2 as it accelerated to higher speeds.
The test team was on high alert as it orchestrated flight activities to keep the three vehicles a safe distance apart. Cheers and applause broke out on the ground. The pilot slowed the X2, turned it around, and flew back to land on the runway. Everyone involved was jubilant, but most of all relieved—especially the pilot. The real X2 has only about 14 flight hours on it, but its engineers and pilots have spent hundreds of hours flying the simulator.
Assuming all goes well, Sikorsky engineers are planning to adopt some of the technologies used on the X2 for the new helicopters they have on the drawing board. So expect some dramatic shifts in the way helicopters are designed. Thomas Lawrence, a technical fellow at Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. First he helped design an airship lifted by four conjoined helicopters.
Next came the XHA, a futile effort to break the helicopter speed record. He then focused on the X-Wing, an aircraft that could take off like a helicopter but switched midair to fly like a fixed-wing airplane. None succeeded. See the Back story on this article.
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