{"id":40096,"date":"2020-01-17T15:38:45","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T15:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/01\/17\/defiant-exceeds-100-knots\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:20:08","slug":"defiant-exceeds-100-knots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/01\/17\/defiant-exceeds-100-knots\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch the Defiant helicopter exceed 100 knots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant<\/a> coaxial demonstrator flew more than 100 knots in a Jan. 13 flight test<\/a> as the aircraft \u2014 built for the U.S. Army\u2019s Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator program \u2014 continues to expand its flight envelope in weekly sorties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aircraft also maneuvered at 30-degree bank turns during the flight in a test of its agility at the Lockheed Martin-owned Sikorsky\u2019s Development Flight Test Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defiant has been flying for nearly a year.<\/a> Its first flight was in March 2018 after a delay <\/a>to the program to challenges mostly related to the manufacturing its rotor blades<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program seems to have picked up the pace. In October, Ken Eland, Boeing\u2019s director and manager of its Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program, told reporters that the aircraft flew three times in March and April, but the company took a pause in flight <\/a>operations after discovering an issue with the gearbox of the propulsion system test bed, or PSTB, which the team is using for extensive ground tests of the aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defiant was back up in the air by Sept. 24 when it flew in every direction at speeds of 20 knots. The company said last fall that it planned to push the aircraft to 40 knots and believed it would be able to hit top speeds of 250 knots, which is more than the 230-knot requirement set by the Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aircraft is one of two demonstrators flying as part of the Army\u2019s Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator, or JMR TD, program, which is meant to inform the service\u2019s Future Vertical Lift programs of record, specifically a future long-range assault aircraft<\/a> the Army wants to field by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other demonstrator is Bell\u2019s V-280 Valor tilt-rotor demonstrator<\/a>, which as been flying for more than two years and recently completed autonomous test flight series in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the official JMR TD phase has ended, according to the Army, both Valor and Defiant continue to fly as each team works to drive down risk related to technology development that would ultimately help a possible program of record move more quickly down the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though the two demonstrators are in different places in their flight test plans, Maj. Gen. Thomas Todd, the program executive officer for Army aviation, said earlier this month that the service wasn\u2019t planning to wait for each competitor to reach the same goal posts before proceeding. The only advantage a vendor might have in meeting timelines is that it is able to burn down risk in technology development, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army is preparing to award an other transaction authority contract to begin a competitive demonstration and risk reduction, or CDRR, effort<\/a> in March. An OTA is a type of contract that enables rapid prototyping. The CDRR will consist of two phases that last approximately one year each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the CDRR, we\u2019re really trying to develop a weapons system, not the tech demonstrator,\u201d Brig. Gen. Wally Rugen, who is in charge of the Army\u2019s aviation modernization, recently said. \u201cSo we\u2019re trying to take it to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n