Dark horse design house AVX has never built a complete aircraft. The Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft competition just might change that.

The Army will hold five demonstrations this year for the electronic backbone of its future manned aircraft and drones. A forerunner is already entering service.

The Sikorsky-Boeing super-copter has just over an hour of flight time, but the Army says it has all the data it needs to accelerate the program. How?

How can Army accelerate its Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft when one leading contender started flight tests just seven days ago?

The thing that delayed Defiant, it turns out, is the same thing that makes it really attractive to the Army.

“We … are looking at opportunities to do a road trip,” Bell executive Keith Flail told me. “Can we take the V-280 to a handful of key Army and Marine Corps installations to show capabilities to the force?”

“It’s much more like a fighter aircraft than a helicopter,” Sikorsky’s test pilot tells me in the video as he maneuvers gleefully.
“Whoa, warn me next time!” I say after a particularly nifty/nauseating roll.

One variant, in Army colors, has missile racks sticking out of what was originally the passenger cabin — a conversion that units could potentially install or remove as needed in the field. The other, with Marine Corps markings, is a sleeker thoroughbred gunship with internal weapons bays, stealth features, and folding wings to fit in shipboard hangars.

WASHINGTON: After months of hints, the Army announced Friday it wants competing prototypes of a Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft flying by 2023. But there’s a deal of uncertainty — even anxiety — about what the Army wants. “Industry can develop whatever the government tells them what they want, if it sticks to the requirements and… Keep reading →

CRYSTAL CITY: This is the year Sikorsky catches up on the Future Vertical Lift program, company executives told reporters Monday. Yes, last year arch-rival Bell Helicopter was first to fly its entry in the Joint Multi-Role flight demonstration, the official lead-in to FVL. But this year Sikorsky will fly not one but three different aircraft… Keep reading →