S-92 Helibus No Longer a "Paper Machine"

The 20-passenger S-92 Helibus prototype is performing better than expected in flight tests since taking to the air for the first time last December 23, according to Sikorsky officials.

It has already opened the speed envelope to 155 kt, entered autorotation at 80 kt, and has been flown at maximum gross weight and various CG positions.

"The aircraft is performing better than we forecast and exceeding projections," said Charles Isabelle, vice president for the S-92 program. Five prototypes will serve the development program, which involves 1,400 hours of flying. Plans call for the test flight fleet to comprise three aircraft by the end of this spring.
Sikorsky has fed some four million hours of Black Hawk flight experience into the S-92, which in terms of transmission and gearbox resembles a 21% more powerful, scaled up version of that utility helicopter, but with the works packed into a space only a couple of inches taller. That means the S-92 components can be backfitted to the worldwide fleet of 2,500 Black Hawks, should such a program be developed.

Commercial sales of the S-92 are expected to reach up to 250 aircraft over a 20-year period, sales manager Ken Kelley told Show News, while government sales could top 550 in the same period. That would suggest production of up to 48 a year in four years time, he added.

Plans call to certify the S-92 in 2000, with first deliveries at the end of 2001.

Sikorsky holds a number of agreements in principle from prospective customers for the $12.5 million helicopter, but no sales contracts have yet been signed.

The S-92's nearest competitor will be the proposed Eurocopter Super Puma III, "but we have a pretty broad lead," said Kelley. "The S-92 has been criticized over the last few years for being a paper machinebut now we are saying the Super Puma Mk. III is a paper machine."

Partners in the six-nation S-92 are Sikorsky, Mitsubishi of Japan, Gamesa in Spain, Jingdezhen Helicopter Group in the People's Republic of China, Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. in Taiwan, and Embraer in Brazil.