{"id":57050,"date":"2017-04-19T10:03:52","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T10:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2017\/04\/19\/defiant-delayed-joint-multi-role-demonstrator-wont-fly-in-2017\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:15:19","slug":"defiant-delayed-joint-multi-role-demonstrator-wont-fly-in-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/digital-show-dailies\/aaaa\/2017\/04\/19\/defiant-delayed-joint-multi-role-demonstrator-wont-fly-in-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Defiant delayed: Joint Multi Role demonstrator won\u2019t fly in 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-2a2b9038-859b-7bb5-03b4-06b8af1f9048\">WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2013\u00a0The Army has been planning for two vertical lift aircraft to begin flight demonstrations in the fall of 2017 critical to the process of informing and shaping the design of a Future Vertical Lift helicopter fleet expected to come online in the 2030s.<br\/><br\/>But one of the demonstrators\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the Sikorsky-Boeing-made SB-1 Defiant coaxial helicopter\u00a0\u2013\u00a0 is now slated to start flying some time in the first half of 2018, behind the original schedule.<br\/><br\/>Bell Helicopter has been very vocal about its own demonstrator\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the V-280 Valor tiltrotor\u00a0\u2013\u00a0and recently said the aircraft is roughly 95 percent complete. The company said it will be ready to fly on schedule in the fall of 2017, but also believes the Army, given the technology on display now, could start building a new aircraft by 2020.<br\/><br\/><\/span>While Defiant may start its flight test phase later, the Boeing and Sikorsky team believes it\u2019s following &#8220;a very disciplined approach,&#8221; according to Pat Donnelly, Defiant program manager at Boeing.<br\/><br\/>The delay seems to be a relatively new development. In December, the Boeing-Sikorsky team told Defense News in an interview that it was anticipating flying on time.<br\/><br\/>&#8220;Honestly, there\u2019s nothing significant that happened that caused a delay,&#8221; Donnelly told reporters\u00a0during an April 18 teleconference. &#8220;There were no problems that we\u2019ve encountered; it\u2019s just a process as we\u2019ve been following it. Things aren\u2019t happening as quickly as we would like, but again there has been no negative elements going on, we are marching down the path, as we said.&#8221;<br\/><br\/>Donnelly added the Army and Marine Corps &#8220;fully understand where we are and fully support&#8221; the process &#8220;because, again, it is the belief that when we do fly we will have validated all of our components and, as such, we will be entering a much more risk-reduced flight test program.&#8221;<br\/><br\/>When pressed further on what was slowing the process, Donnelly said the focus of the team in developing Defiant has been on work in its systems integration lab and propulsion system test bed. He said the third leg of the development work is flying the aircraft. The process requires coordination across the three legs, as hardware is refined, for instance.<br\/><br\/>The team thinks it is possible to make up for lost time as it begins to fly the aircraft due to its thorough risk reduction process now, but Donnelly added, &#8220;we do recognize that our flight test program has probably a year duration. Certainly as we start to fly the aircraft, while we still have to expand an envelope and still have to prove all of the flight characteristics of this vehicle, we will be doing it with more confidence I think than we would be if we didn\u2019t do all of this risk reduction beforehand.&#8221;<br\/><br\/>The Boeing-Sikorsky team also said the delay in flight schedule should not have a negative impact on the Army launching its FVL program within its planned timeline. The program is expected to become a full-fledged program-of-record in 2019.<br\/><br\/>Meanwhile, the Lockheed Martin-owned Sikorsky has made progress in its S-97 Raider helicopter program, which uses the same X2 coaxial technology as Defiant but on a smaller scale. Raider is a scaled-up version of its X2 demonstrator that broke unofficial helicopter cruise speed records in 2010.<br\/><br\/>The aircraft flew in March this year in a series of tests and<a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HncZgouxt9k\" title=\"Link: null\"> Lockheed posted a video <\/a>Tuesday of it in action. The Army considered Raider as an option when it was looking to procure an armed reconnaissance helicopter around 2012, but ultimately it opted not to procure a new helicopter for the mission.\u00a0<br\/><br\/>Sikorksy has moved at lightning speed with Raider\u2019s development. At the time the service was mulling a new armed scout, Raider was an aircraft just on paper.<br\/><br\/>The service originally intended to include the attack mission in its first variant of FVL that it calls &#8220;Capability Set 3,&#8221; but the Army is taking a step back to debate what it truly needs in an attack helicopter and where it fits in the family of future rotorcraft. The analysis of alternatives the service has begun for its first variant of FVL does not include examining the attack mission.<br\/><br\/>The Army will likely follow the development of capability set 3 with capability set 1 development\u00a0\u2013\u00a0which is expected to address light attack\u00a0\u2013\u00a0due to a current gap in the service\u2019s light attack and reconnaissance helicopter fleet with the retirement of the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter.<br\/><br\/>In scaling up in size, moving from the X2 to Raider to Defiant, Sikorsky is increasing the weight of the platform from 6,000 lbs to 11,000 lbs to 30,000 lbs, Donnelly said.<br\/><br\/>When asked what the challenges might be in scaling the aircraft up in size and weight, Donnelly said, while loads on the rotor system increase with size, the task &#8220;doesn\u2019t appear to be a challenge at this time.&#8221;<br\/><br\/>Dan Spoor, Sikorsky vice president told reporters in the small teleconference \u00a0that using a currently fielded engine\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the T-55\u00a0\u2013\u00a0puts some limitation on the aircraft and a future engine that would come along with FVL would match up well with what the team has designed and would bring it to its full potential.<br\/><br\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Army has been planning for two vertical lift aircraft to begin flight demonstrations in the fall of 2017 critical to the process of informing and shaping the design of a Future Vertical Lift helicopter fleet expected to come online in the 2030s. But one of the demonstrators \u2013 the Sikorsky-Boeing-made SB-1 Defiant coaxial helicopter \u2013  is now slated to start flying at some time in the first half of 2018, behind the original schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":115228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":72,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[72,29,14],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3330],"class_list":["post-57050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aaaa","category-digital-show-dailies","category-land"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"OI5R5PZJXZHU5KOWBZE5PWFE3Y","arc_canonical_url":"\/digital-show-dailies\/aaaa\/2017\/04\/19\/defiant-delayed-joint-multi-role-demonstrator-wont-fly-in-2017\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Defiant delayed: Joint Multi Role demonstrator won\u2019t fly in 2017 - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Army has been planning for two vertical lift aircraft to begin flight demonstrations in the fall of 2017 critical to the process of informing and shaping the design of a Future Vertical Lift helicopter fleet expected to come online in the 2030s. But one of the demonstrators \u2013 the Sikorsky-Boeing-made SB-1 Defiant coaxial helicopter \u2013 is now slated to start flying at some time in the first half of 2018, behind the original schedule.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defiant delayed: Joint Multi Role demonstrator won\u2019t fly in 2017\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Army has been planning for two vertical lift aircraft to begin flight demonstrations in the fall of 2017 critical to the process of informing and shaping the design of a Future Vertical Lift helicopter fleet expected to come online in the 2030s. But one of the demonstrators \u2013 the Sikorsky-Boeing-made SB-1 Defiant coaxial helicopter \u2013 is now slated to start flying at some time in the first half of 2018, behind the original schedule.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/digital-show-dailies\/aaaa\/2017\/04\/19\/defiant-delayed-joint-multi-role-demonstrator-wont-fly-in-2017\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-19T10:03:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T00:15:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jen Judson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jen Judson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/digital-show-dailies\\\/aaaa\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/19\\\/defiant-delayed-joint-multi-role-demonstrator-wont-fly-in-2017\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/digital-show-dailies\\\/aaaa\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/19\\\/defiant-delayed-joint-multi-role-demonstrator-wont-fly-in-2017\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"headline\": \"Defiant delayed: Joint Multi Role demonstrator won\u2019t fly in 2017\",\n\t            \"datePublished\": \"2017-04-19T10:03:52+00:00\",\n\t            \"dateModified\": \"2026-08-08T00:15:19+00:00\",\n\t            \"mainEntityOfPage\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/digital-show-dailies\\\/aaaa\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/19\\\/defiant-delayed-joint-multi-role-demonstrator-wont-fly-in-2017\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"wordCount\": 867,\n\t            \"commentCount\": 0,\n\t            \"publisher\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#organization\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/digital-show-dailies\\\/aaaa\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/19\\\/defiant-delayed-joint-multi-role-demonstrator-wont-fly-in-2017\\\/#primaryimage\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"thumbnailUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/fvl-defiant-boeing-sikorsky.jpg_d1e53c.jpg\",\n\t            \"articleSection\": [\n\t                \"AAAA\",\n\t                \"Digital Show Dailies\",\n\t                \"Land\"\n\t            ],\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t            \"potentialAction\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"CommentAction\",\n\t                    \"name\": \"Comment\",\n\t                    \"target\": [\n\t                        \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/digital-show-dailies\\\/aaaa\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/19\\\/defiant-delayed-joint-multi-role-demonstrator-wont-fly-in-2017\\\/#respond\"\n\t                    ]\n\t                }\n\t            ]\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/digital-show-dailies\\\/aaaa\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/19\\\/defiant-delayed-joint-multi-role-demonstrator-wont-fly-in-2017\\\/\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/digital-show-dailies\\\/aaaa\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/19\\\/defiant-delayed-joint-multi-role-demonstrator-wont-fly-in-2017\\\/\",\n\t            \"name\": \"Defiant delayed: Joint Multi Role demonstrator won\u2019t fly in 2017 - 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