The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
DOD details design flaws with Sikorsky’s Marine helicopter
After more than 1,500 hours of flight testing last year, the U.S. Department of Defense sent Sikorsky Aircraft engineers back to the drawing board on multiple elements of a new helicopter for the Marine Corps, one of a few programs on which the Stratford manufacturer is counting on for a lift after several years of declining sales.
The Marine Corps wants more than 200 CH-53K King Stallion helicopters to replace its aging fleet of CH-53E Super Stallion aircraft, with the King Stallion designed to carry triple the payload at greater altitudes and ranges. If a full allotment of aircraft is delivered to the Marines, the total contract could top $25 billion. On Monday, the Pentagon released a proposed budget that would authorize $1.5 billion to purchase seven CH-53K helicopters in the coming fiscal year.
The King Stallion is one of three major programs in Sikorsky’s immediate pipeline, along with a new fleet of presidential transport helicopters for the White House and a new aircraft for the U.S. Air Force to rescue pilots downed behind enemy lines, as well as humanitarian missions during disasters.
Sikorsky and parent Lockheed Martin are among Connecticut’s largest corporate employers, at last report with some 8,000 people at Sikorsky’s main plant in Stratford and satellite offices in Shelton and Bridgeport.
A Lockheed Martin executive told the Wall Street Journal last month that the company expects Sikorsky annual revenue to double in the coming dozen years from sales of $5.1 billion last year, as production gears up for the new helicopter programs.
And Sikorsky is vying to win a Pentagon design competition for a new generation of vertical-lift aircraft, with rival Bell Helicopter and its Providence, R.I.-based parent Textron countering with a tilt-rotor aircraft derived from the V-22 Osprey.
Troubleshooting design problems
Lockheed Martin inherited the CH-53K program from United Technologies, after spending $9 billion four years ago to acquire Sikorsky from Farmington-based United Technologies. Lockheed Martin has posted videos online of CH-53K flight tests, including dramatic footage last spring of desert hover tests in the Yuma, Ariz. that reduced pilot visibility to nothing as the chopper’s rotors blasted sand particles high into the air.
“It’s humbling and it’s awe-inspiring to be around it,” said Sikorsky test pilot John Rucci. “The capability of the helicopter is so beyond anything that we’ve ever produced for the Marine Corps . ... I think they’re going to be extremely happy when they get this aircraft to the fleet.”
Late last month, however, the U.S. Navy provided a more measured update on the CH-53K, noting that while it had initially expected to have King Stallions in the fold last year for initial operational tests and evaluations as a prelude to regular deployment, that date has now been pushed back to 2021.
Problems surfaced in a handful of King Stallion prototypes built by Sikorsky, including some cutting to the core of safe flight operation. Issues include what the Navy termed as “low reliability” of the main rotor gearbox, which is designed to stay operational up to 30 minutes with any loss of oil; structural problems with the tail boom and rotors; and “hot gas impingement” on the skin of the aircraft, as well as overheating in the engine compartment.
Additionally, pilots were scheduled to begin flight tests this month using a revised flight control software, after the Navy reported what it described as “a failure condition” that could cause pilots to lose control of the aircraft while lifting off. Sikorsky added an override switch to allow pilots to switch to manual control during takeoff.
Sikorsky has fixed more than 100 flaws cited by the Navy, with some two-dozen still outstanding at the time of the Pentagon’s update on the program.
“The CH-53K helicopter program continues to mature with flight test progress occurring in parallel with aircraft production,” read a Lockheed Martin statement forwarded by a corporate spokesperson. “We are flying and testing aircraft today ... and continue to successfully execute key performance and test events that validate capabilities.”
While the Sikorsky Black Hawk and its Seahawk and Pave Hawk variants have been reliable workhorses for U.S. military branches, Sikorsky has a more recent blot on its development record with the CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopter it developed for Canada.
With deliveries delayed multiple years by a software glitch and other technical hurdles, the Cyclone would cost Sikorsky’s former parent UTC more than $10 million per aircraft as it worked to bring the helicopters closer to the Canadian government’s specifications to accept deliveries. The Cyclone entered full service in the summer of 2018.
Still, the Navy reported no major design issues with two prototype Sikorsky VH-92A helicopters that it is testing as the future Marine One transport for the president and White House staff, with the Pentagon requesting $739 million to purchase five of the aircraft in the coming fiscal year.