{"id":57093,"date":"2020-02-20T21:44:23","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T21:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/02\/20\/defiant-raider-and-sara-fly-together-in-first-public-demo\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:13:16","slug":"defiant-raider-and-sara-fly-together-in-first-public-demo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/02\/20\/defiant-raider-and-sara-fly-together-in-first-public-demo\/","title":{"rendered":"Defiant, Raider and SARA fly together in first public demo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Check out the flight demo put on for Army leadership of the SB>1 Defiant, one of two tech demonstrators being evaluated for Future Vertical Lift.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. \u2014 Three of Lockheed Martin\u2019s Sikorsky\u2019s experimental helicopters flew together for the first time in a public demonstration Feb. 20 at the company\u2019s flight test facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant coaxial demonstrator made its public flight debut reaching a cruise speed of 140 knots and demonstrating low-speed agility at lower acoustic levels compared to a conventional helicopter. The audience included Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a former U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk pilot whose aircraft was shot down in Iraq in 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sikorsky\u2019s President Dan Schultz told the audience at the demonstration that Defiant\u2019s flight is representative of almost $500 million of investment in over 12 years of development. Since it\u2019s first flight in March 2019, Defiant has logged 24 hours of flight time over 13 flights. The aircraft has flown almost every week in 2020 so far as it continues to push the envelope in its flight test regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Sikorsky test pilot, Bill Fell, the aircraft should reach maximum speed capability of roughly 250 knots within the next few months as the company continues to prove out Defiant\u2019s capability. The aircraft will also demonstrate its ability to achieve speeds of 200 knots flying 100 to 50 feet above the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The S-97 Raider, following Defiant\u2019s performance, demonstrated low-speed agility maneuvers and reached a cruise speed of 180 knots, although it is capable of hitting higher speeds. And the Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft (SARA) followed both with a demonstration exhibiting autonomous flight maneuvers \u2014 taking off and landing at several points on the runway all while being controlled from a tablet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the Raider and SARA<\/a> have previously been flown publicly.<\/p>\n\n\n

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You’re gonna want to watch the impressive maneuverability of the Sikorsky S-97 Raider during a flight demo for Army leadership in Florida.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Defiant is the Sikorsky-Boeing team\u2019s offering for the Army\u2019s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) competition<\/a>. It was built for the service\u2019s Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) program which wrapped up last fall. The JMR TD was intended to inform the service in order to shape requirements for Future Vertical Lift aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a tight timeline but with additional funding, the U.S. Army is attempting to field FLRAA<\/a> by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sikorsky and Boeing are pitted against Bell, which also built and flew a prototype for the JMR TD program. Bell\u2019s V-280 Valor\u2019s <\/a>first flight was in December 2017 and the company has mostly wrapped up two years of flying the aircraft and collecting data to also inform the FLRAA program. Bell demonstrated Valor\u2019s capability for McCarthy in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defiant had a more difficult time getting off the ground due to issues in manufacturing its rotor blades<\/a>. Its first flight was in March 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\t