sarwulf
January 20th, 2012, 07:47
Those who may be interested, the Sikorsky X2 Technology Demostrator helicopter was on display at Patuxent River NAS yesteday. The record breaking aircraft is on its way to the Smithsonion Air & Space Museum. The X2 flew to a record 250Kts in level flight and achieved 260Kts in a shallow dive. Aircraft utilizes a counter-rotating rigid rotor system. The Sikorsky engineer explained that the X2 essentially flies like a gyrocopter at higher forward airspeeds with the rotor system pretty much freewheeling in an autorotative state. Very interesting to see it up close.