Story ID: 130
Sikorsky Plays For The Rebound
By: Mark Huber
Caption: Sikorsky's civil helicopter future is pegged to increased utility for its S-92A heavy twin. 
Word Count: 1293
Sikorsky is positioning itself for the heavy helicopter market rebound. 
A key portion of Sikorsky’s forward strategy for the civil market is maximizing the utility of its installed fleet of heavy twin S-92A Helibus helicopters with upgrade kits and modifications. Eventually, this could include the Sikorsky Matrix system, which holds the promise of fully autonomous and semi-autonomous flight and the potential for single-pilot certification. Meanwhile, the company’s innovation division is continuing research into hybrid-electric applications. 
However, according to Jason Lambert, Sikorsky vice president of global commercial and military systems, after performing a commercial analysis, the company might incorporate its X2 compound-coaxial helicopter technology—a finalist for the U.S. Army’s Future Attack and Reconnaissance (FARA) and Future Long Range Attack Aircraft (FLRAA) programs—into its future civil product offerings. Its X2 technology offers advanced speed, maneuverability, and agility compared with conventional helicopters.
Concurrently, the company also is offering the civil variant of its UH-60M Black Hawk, badged the S-70M, in the restricted category for a variety of uses including aerial firefighting. But overall, the civil market for one of the most iconic names in American rotorcraft continues to be soft, ravaged in part by the pandemic, but also by the softness in the offshore energy market leading up to it. Last year Sikorsky delivered just four new S-92As and no S-76D medium twins. 
Deliveries of new S-76Ds are all but moribund and the model is effectively out of production as the company chose not to commit the needed engineering resources to make the aircraft compliant with FAA crash-resistant helicopter fuel tank standards for new production aircraft that went into effect in April 2020, according to Lambert. “The S-76D has a great safety record, but it does not specifically comply with this crashworthy fuel system regulation,” he told AIN. He 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. He noted that the first VIP S-76D was delivered to India last year. 
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 S-92A had taken place at Sikorsky’s Coatesville, Pennsylvania plant, but the down market prompted Sikorsky to announce the closure of that facility last year and redistribute various tasks performed there to Sikorsky/Lockheed-Martin facilities in Oswego, New York; West Palm Beach, FL; and Stratford. Lambert said a new final assembly line would be established for the S-92A at a location to be determined.      
The soft market also has moved the company’s modification program for existing S-92As, known as the A+, to the right. Originally scheduled to deliver in 2023, Lambert said the certification of the upgrade’s key components now will not be completed until 2025 with deliveries beginning in 2026. The A+ kit allows customers to choose from a menu of improvements including a new “Phase IV” main gearbox that uses a supplemental oil pump and additional oil lines to reuse main gearbox oil that is accumulated in a lower sump in the event of primary lubrication failure. According to Lambert, Sikorsky had yet to decide if the A+ would become the standard configuration for new production helicopters. “Some customers do have an interest in the A+ while others just want the S-92A,” he remarked. 
Sikorsky’s plans to offer a significantly revamped helicopter with larger cabin windows and titanium frames, the S-92B, originally targeted to deliver in 2025, has been pushed to an indeterminant future point “on the horizon,” Lambert said. He added that certain features planned for the B, such as the titanium frames, designed to give the helicopter a longer useful life, may be incorporated into new production helicopters with the A+ package. He said “market demand” would drive “what the B configuration will look like further downstream.” However, he suggested that Matrix could play a large role in any B model, including offering it with single-pilot certification. “Being able to operate with one pilot versus two is a game-changer. We don’t expect that [the S-92] would ever be able to go fully autonomous—we have to leave the pilot in the loop.” But Lambert said the company is focusing on developing the system to the point where if “something catastrophic” happened to the pilot, “the asset could return home safely.” Compound-coaxial helicopter delivers superior performance compared to traditional helicopters, and this technology might be offered by Sikorsky for civil use following upcoming Army programs.
The market will clearly drive the pace of S-92 modernization. “We haven’t sold an offshore aircraft in several years,” Lambert admitted. But flight hours are up and this year the S-92 fleet will surpass two million hours, he noted, calling it “a testament to the safety and reliability of the aircraft.” Meanwhile, he expressed optimism that rising oil prices would spur more orders once the “excess [helicopter] inventory in the marketplace” works its way out. Lambert is encouraged by the S-92’s continuing popularity as a head-of-state aircraft—now for 13 countries and soon also the United States—and its growing use as a search and rescue (SAR) aircraft. He noted that the Matrix system would significantly add capabilities to a SAR-configured S-92. “Matrix can optimize a SAR pattern far more efficiently than a pilot can.” 
Matrix also could add significant night-time firefighting capability to both the S-70 Firehawk and a new collapsible firefighting kit developed for the S-92 in February. Helicopter lessor Milestone Aviation has partnered with Australia’s Helitak to develop an aerial firefighting kit designed specifically for the S-92A. The FT5000 system features a 1,050-gallon, collapsible, belly-mounted fire-suppression tank that can be installed or removed in minutes and is equipped with a hover pump that can fully fill the tank in 48 seconds. The firefighting S-92A can also transport crews of up to 19 firefighters, and its rear-loading cargo ramp offers operators the ability to quickly reconfigure the aircraft from passenger and equipment transfers to cargo hauling or medevac services.
Lambert also said that the company was in discussions with several prospective customers on developing new military helicopter variants based on the S-92, “but heavily, heavily customized.” He said the S-92 variant developed for the Canadian military, the CH-148, is “unique to Canada,” and not really applicable to other markets.
Despite the pandemic overhang, Lambert stressed that Sikorsky is still “very committed to the commercial marketplace and to our customers” even though the company had to make “some very hard business decisions” last year with regard to cost reduction and consolidation. He added that the uptick in both oil prices and flight hours bode well for future orders. “We are optimistic.”