In the United States continues to work on the creation of long-term high-speed reconnaissance helicopter S-97 Raider. American company Sikorsky experts conducted a new phase of testing, during which the helicopter for the first time crossed the barrier of the speed 200 knots, accelerating to 202 knots (374,1 kilometers per hour), reports popular science portal “Nplus1”.
Flight tests of the new helicopter are underway with 2015 of the year. Speed tests, during which the helicopter had to accelerate to the calculated maximum 220 knots, should have started in 2017 year, but due to serious damage to the case, resulting from a hard landing, they had to be postponed.
A new stage of testing began in September this year., during which the S-97 was tested with several flight modes, including normal helicopter flight, horizontal flight with acceleration due to the tail propeller, hovering with down and up nose and descent with airplane speed reduction. Also passed the stage of high-speed acceleration of the helicopter, during which he overcame the milestone 200 knots.
The helicopter is being developed by Sikorsky as part of a tender, announced by the American army to develop and supply new reconnaissance helicopters to replace the outdated OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters.
Beyond the Sikorsky Raider, Bell Helicopter with the new V-280 Valor tiltrotor participates in the tender. Two more companies, who announced their participation in the tender, models have not yet been presented. These are AVX Aircraft and Karem Aircraft.
