As it became known, the US Ground Forces issued five contracts to companies that are supposed to create a promising reconnaissance and attack helicopter. Some are well known to all aviation lovers, while others have yet to be studied.
Here they are: AVX Aircraft, Bell, Boeing, Karem Aircraft and Sikorsky. Only two of these companies will qualify for the final to bring flying prototypes to the military by 2023. Finally, the leadership of the US Army will finally decide and order the best, in their opinion, helicopter: mass production of the machine should be organized at the end of the 2020s.
It is necessary to explain what this program is and why it is needed. FARA is called upon to find a replacement for the light multipurpose helicopter Bell OH-58 Kiowa, which made its first flight in 1962. In total, more than 2,000 of these machines were built: during the last wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Americans lost at least 35 helicopters of this type in battles. By the way, this is far from a "toothless" target: the modified version can carry AGM-114 Hellfire guided missiles. But the low cruising speed of 190 kilometers does not suit many people at the Pentagon. And increasing the reaction of air support in a collision of ground forces with the enemy is one of the most important tasks of the US Army.
According to the results of FARA, the winner will have to create a helicopter capable of flying at speeds of at least 380 kilometers per hour. In addition, it is nice to have a more tenacious helicopter and with a higher combat radius.
Confusion can arise here, because the concept of creating high-speed helicopters goes beyond Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft. Recall that at the end of December last year, they presented in the States the appearance of a promising multipurpose helicopter Sikorsky-Boeing SB1 Defiant, the development is based on the promising Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program. It is seen as a possible replacement for the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk along with the V-280 tiltrotor. In a narrow sense, FARA is part of the FVL, designed, as noted above, to find a replacement for the lighter Bell OH-58 Kiowa, decommissioned by the Americans in 2017. Now its role has been partially taken over by Apaches, and partially by drones. And now let's go directly to the topic of the article and see how the American aircraft manufacturers can please.
Sikorsky Aircraft
The most realistic option for FARA looks like the project of the Sikorsky company, which is now owned by Lockheed Martin. Speech, of course, about the Sikorsky S-97 Raider. It is a coaxial reconnaissance helicopter with a push rotor in the tail section. The car made its first flight in 2015 and has been actively undergoing flight tests since then. However, not without excesses. In August 2017, an accident occurred at the Sikorsky Development flight center, which is located at the West Palm Beach airfield (USA, Florida). The pilots were forced to make a hard landing while handling the hover. Then the media reported that the pilots were not injured. The S-97 Raider helicopter itself also had no visible damage, as far as can be judged from the photo.
The characteristics of the car look very decent. The use of an innovative aerodynamic design allows for a top speed of 444 km / h and a cruising speed of 407 km / h. Crew: 2 people. In addition, the vehicle can take on board six paratroopers, as well as use a wide range of weapons. This is, of course, in the future when the production version comes out.
Bell helicopter
Bell has a much more conservative view. Earlier, she announced that she wants to take part in the FARA tender, offering a rotary-wing aircraft created on the basis of the Bell 525 Relentless medium multi-purpose helicopter, and the creators claim that the initial development will undergo minimal modifications.
Bell 525 does not have revolutionary "chips" like the S-97, but it is a modern machine, which, importantly, has already proven its potential in tests. She performed her first flight in 2015. The maximum speed of the helicopter is 306 km / h, and the cruising speed is 287. Bell 525 is capable of flying over a distance of more than one thousand kilometers.
The car can take on board up to 20 people. In terms of this indicator, the Relentless greatly outperforms both the OH-58 and the S-97. In general, if a helicopter from Bell is chosen, the army will receive a much heavier machine than the Kiowa. Will the US military be happy with this?
AVX Aircraft Company
Most unusual candidate for winning the FARA competition: this aircraft was designed by AVX Aircraft Company together with L3 Technologies. Previously, on the vastness of the Web, you could already see the general concept, but the concept presented recently has serious differences.
Like its progenitor, the car received a coaxial rotor and two propellers on the sides of the fuselage. The helicopter is notable for its very large, like for a rotorcraft, wings, which are designed to create aerodynamic lift. Both the wings and the main rotor can be folded for compact transport.
Like the Bell 525 and S-97, the AVX helicopter crew is positioned side-by-side, like the Bell OH-58. At the time of the presentation, data on the characteristics of the rotorcraft were not provided. Note that the disadvantages for AVX Aircraft within the framework of the competition are obvious: unlike its main competitors, the company so far can only boast of beautiful pictures.
Boeing
In 2018, it became known that Boeing wanted to remake the famous AH-64 Apache helicopter with a push-type propeller. This will give the machine fundamentally new capabilities, in particular, the speed of the helicopter will increase by 50 percent, and the economy will increase by 24 percent. At the same time, the cost of the new Apache, according to calculations, will not increase very much: by about 20 percent. The familiar tail rotor will also remain: it is necessary to compensate for the torque of the main rotor.
It is difficult to talk about the prospects of the project, especially in light of the comparison with other machines of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program. And although the US Army does not intend to abandon the Apache, it is not a fact that now it will make a choice in favor of a far from new helicopter.
Karem aircraft
Karem Aircraft, an American aircraft manufacturer founded by Iraqi-born Abraham Karem, is perhaps the least likely to win. Earlier, the team showed the world images of a number of promising ultra-high-speed rotorcraft, in particular, tiltrotors. In other words, tiltrotors with rotary propellers, combining the possibility of vertical take-off and landing with horizontal movement at the speed of an aircraft.
In 2016, Karem Aircraft began developing a new TR75 heavy transport tiltrotor that will replace the CH-47 Chinook heavy transport helicopters and the C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft. Later, Karem Aircraft showed a concept for an electric tiltrotor called the Butterfly, in which they want to use large rotors with variable speed rotation. Neither one nor the other apparatus has yet reached the stage of prototyping.
