What Lockheed and Boeing lack in engineering successes, they make up with a strong lobbying presence in Washington, and US representatives willing to bend to their will.

"Spyclip" at secret projects:

• 8 May 2023

History suggests that RaiderX will suffer the exact same performance issues as all other rigid rotor coaxial designs. Its hard to imagine a situation where the Army would select a fundamentally flawed platform, especially in this case where the aircraft will be given to the Army to do the test flying. Think about how Sikorsky has, to date, still never let an Army XP be PIC on the S-97. And also how there were no Army XP on Defiant until the absolute last minute on a single sortie before it went radio silent and likely retired.

There'll be no place to hide the weenie this time.

With the competitive prototype aircraft both designed around a single engine, RaiderX will be objectively outperformed by Invictus in flight test. If the Army pivots, as expected, to a twin with a larger footprint allowable then it negates the entire CP aircraft exercise and all the losing bidders for the demo will have a field day in court. Combined with the ongoing schedule slips of T901, I do not see how this entire SNAFU does not get canceled before EOY 2023.

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/thr....13812/page-63

Hitler Reacts to the Bell V-280 winning FLRAA.
 

This is the first I ever saw this type of parody humor. When playing the video on a phone, you may need to hold the phone vertically to see the full image.

All the audio is in German, but the close caption is a parody of what Hitler would say about Bell winning FLRAA, if he was in charge of Sikorsky.

https://www.captiongenerator.com/v/2284390/hitler-reacts-to-the-bell-v-280-winning-flraa.

It may be the first time you have seen this particular video clip being used this way, but it has been used thousands of times like this over many, many years, to the point of being tiresome.

Stuart,

To each their own. Humor is a very personal thing. I however, found it hilariously funny in a Steinfeld episode way. It was also almost spot on accurate in the engineering technical aspects.

Finally, after the legal and political actions of Lockheed following their loss to Bell, any feeling of shame in laughing at their current situation is nonexistent.

I thought it was both funny and spot on. One of the better applications of that meme show.

I suspect that Valor will use the same methodology used by the V-22 if the proprotors can't be raised for whatever reason. If they are stopped in the 12-4-8 o'clock position, the blades don't hit the ground. If they are rotating, they are designed to break off at the hub and the direction of rotation is such that the blades are thrown clear of the aircraft.

Also be aware that autorotation is not always that gentle of a landing. That's why in training and testing helos are not required to demonstrate autorotation all the way to the ground.

No aircraft systems are ballistic proof, they are only ballistic tolerant. But based on published photos, the V-280 will incorporates a fully redundant pylon conversion actuator design, like the V-22. In the event of any single actuator part jamming, the aircraft can still covert to approximately 48 degrees (half normal full range). This angle is sufficient for a STOL landing without the blades contacting the ground.

From Quad A:

First flight of the prototype now scheduled for 2026. Slippage from 2025 blamed on LM protest.

Playing Musical Chairs with Engineers
 

My contacts at Bell told me what happened when LM filed their protest. For three months there was no funding to keep the Bell engineering teams on FLRAA together to continue working. So, with the exception of management, almost all engineers, had to find homes on other programs. Most went to FARA, which was understaffed.

When the LM protest was finally denied, it took time to bring the engineers back, and get everyone back up to speed. The situation was even worse with FLRAA suppliers. They also had to find homes for their engineers on other programs. However, many of these engineers did not return.

So if anyone wonders how a three month delay turns into a year, now you know.

Fielding 2031
 

https://www.defensenews.com/industry...cDkuoc5wc7lKeu

cheers