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Lockheed Martin Unveils Their ‘Low-Observable’ Raider X FARA Design

© Courtesy of Sikorsky-BoeingThe Sikorsky-Boeing team offers a sneak peek at its new SB>1 DEFIANT™ helicopter.
The Sikorsky-Boeing team offers a sneak peek at its new SB>1 DEFIANT™ helicopter. - Sputnik International
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Lockheed Martin's Sikorsky unveiled its Raider X design, which is based heavily on the S-97 Raider demonstrator that Sikorsky showed off at the 2015 AUSA conference for the US Army's Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA).

Bill Fell, Sikorsky's experimental test pilot for the Raider, said that the Raider X will combine "the best elements of low-speed helicopter performance with the cruise performance of an airplane," cited by Aviation Today.

Sikorsky President Dan Schultz said that the company will leverage Lockheed Martin know-how and "will deliver the only solution that gives the US Army the superiority needed to meet its mission requirements."

Much like the S-97 (and Sikorsky's X2 experimental helicopter), which was used as a blueprint for the fellow model, the Raider X design uses coaxial rigid rotors designed for better performance at high speeds and a "pusher" propeller that takes the thrust load off the rotors. The coaxial rotors also allow the Raider X design to reach advertised speeds in excess of 250 knots (over 287mph, or 463km/h) at altitudes greater than 9,000 feet. 

It has flight controls optimization and vibration mitigation, low-speed and high speed manoeuvrability envelopes out to more than 60 degrees angle of bank and Aeronautical Design Standard-33B Level 1 handling qualities, Lockheed Martin said.

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