World’s Fastest Helicopter

 aircraft, awesomeness, history, news
Oct 082010
 

Video of the Sikorsky X2 busting the world speed record for helicopters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK7ktLXhq88

Notice that there are points in the video where the rotation rate of the rotors synchs up well with the video frame rate, leading to the appearance that the rotors are turning *really* slow.

262 knots in a shallow dive, 250 knots in level flight. And they hadn’t even turned the engine up to “11” yet, so reportedly Sikorsky wants to go for 265 knots in level flight. That’s about 305 mph/491 kph. The previous record holder was the Westland Lynx, which got about 401 kph back in 1986.

 Posted by at 7:49 pm

  3 Responses to “World’s Fastest Helicopter”

  1. Pat Flannery says:
    October 9, 2010 at 5:42 am

    Offshoots of that technology should make a really impressive scout/light attack helicopter.
    Is the olive drab one with the rocket pods in the hanger another flight prototype or a mock-up?

  2. Michael Antoniewicz II says:
    October 10, 2010 at 9:30 am

    I thought the X-49 went faster?

    And it’s building off an established production line and parts inventory…. 😉

  3. admin says:
    October 10, 2010 at 10:03 am

    > I thought the X-49 went faster?

    The “Speedhawk” is shooting for 215 knots.

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