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Because Sikorsky's Raider-X is a rigid coaxial rotor configuration and those essentially don't work. There's no evidence the fundamental problems plaguing Raider and Defiant are fixed and there's no field history for this configuration. It's high risk without a substantial performance benefit over the Bell for the Army mission described. The weapons deployment scheme frankly looks ridiculous. There's no successful X-2 demonstrator that met all its engineering and performance goals to base a production model off of.My money is on Raider-X being the last X-2 aircraft that flies for a few generations... and it'll end up as a dusty hulk in a museum somewhere.If FARA survives Congress and Boeing, we'll get a new attack/recon helicopter with a single main rotor and a lift sharing wing.
Because Sikorsky's Raider-X is a rigid coaxial rotor configuration and those essentially don't work. There's no evidence the fundamental problems plaguing Raider and Defiant are fixed and there's no field history for this configuration. It's high risk without a substantial performance benefit over the Bell for the Army mission described. The weapons deployment scheme frankly looks ridiculous. There's no successful X-2 demonstrator that met all its engineering and performance goals to base a production model off of.
My money is on Raider-X being the last X-2 aircraft that flies for a few generations... and it'll end up as a dusty hulk in a museum somewhere.
If FARA survives Congress and Boeing, we'll get a new attack/recon helicopter with a single main rotor and a lift sharing wing.
