https://newatlas.com/military/sikors...ility-us-army/The Sikorsky
PR team is really stretching credibility with the statement ”
Sikorsky has been flying and testing X2 Technology for more than a decade, accumulating nearly 500 hours”
To get to this number Sikorsky needed to add the flight test time on four different X2 aircraft, plus ground runs and multiple ground test benches for over a decade;
X2 Demonstrator: 22 Flight Hours
S-97 Raider Ship
1: 20 Flight Hours (Crashed)
S-97 Raider Ship 2: 100 Flight Hours
SB>1 Defiant: 30 Flight Hours (estimated based on 26 FH in Jan 2021)
Total for all aircraft: 172 Flight Hours
So the remaining 328 Flight Hours advertised by Sikorsky were accumulated on ground runs and test stands.
Compare this to the “single” Bell AVCD V-280 aircraft, which since it’s first flight three years ago has accumulated over 216
real Flight Hours.
I didn’t post this last month when the article came out, because I felt I was beating a dead horse. But it appears hyperbole, smoke and mirrors, and snake oil are all part of Sikorsky‘s sales pitch.
The engineers at Sikorsky are working their tails off to make this aircraft work. But there comes a time when do you need to look at the data with eyes wide open.
Claiming 500 hours is just like the claim that the S-97 can cruise at 220kt....or that any of the X-2 ships are capable of low speed agility Level 1 HQ....or can perform level body acceleration/deceleration....or have manageable vibration....etc etc
Facts are unimportant when you can just repeat your marketing bullet points ad nauseum and the media parrots them on command.