Sikorsky is exploring what’s next for its S-76D medium-twin turbine helicopter. Deliveries of new S-76Ds are all but moribund and the model is effectively out of production—per General Aviation Manufacturers Association data, zero were shipped last year and only a dozen were handed over between 2016 and 2020.
Meanwhile, parent company Lockheed Martin chose not to commit engineering resources to make the S-76D compliant with FAA crash-resistant fuel tank standards for new-production helicopters that took effect in April 2020, according to Jason Lambert, Sikorsky v-p for global military and commercial systems.
“The S-76D has a great safety record, but it does not specifically comply with this crashworthy fuel system regulation,” he told AIN. Lambert called the engineering resources associated with satisfying compliance “cost-prohibitive,” adding that "there is not a good business case" to do it. However, Lambert held out the possibility that production could be resumed offshore via “global licensing [with] third parties” and that, while the current design did not meet FAA regulation, it could be delivered to numerous other countries, noting that the first VIP S-76D was delivered to India.
Lambert stressed that Sikorsky is maintaining an active spares production line for the S-76 at the Stratford, Connecticut plant, where the company manufactures all the dynamic components for its civil and military helicopters. Final assembly and completion of both the S-76D and the larger S-92A had taken place at Sikorsky’s Coatesville, Pennsylvania plant, but the recent flagging helicopter market prompted Sikorsky to announce the closure of that facility last year. The company then redistributed various tasks previously performed in Coatesville to Sikorsky/Lockheed-Martin facilities in Oswego, New York; West Palm Beach, Florida; and Stratford.
Sikorsky delivered the first S-76 in 1979 and has sold more than 800 across several variants differentiated by varying avionics packages and engines. The first S-76D was first delivered in 2013 at a retail price of $12.5 million. Compared with the S-76C, the -D model features more powerful and fuel-efficient Pratt & Whitney Canada PW210S engines, increased useful load, rotor blades with icing protection, and intuitive Thales TopDeck avionics that allows for single-pilot IFR operations.