The Wichita Eagle
WICHITA, KS - Spirit Aerospace Chief Operations Officer Buck Buchanan speaks after the unveiling at the roll out the first Sikorsky CH-53K helicopter at their plant in Wichita, Kansas
Larry W. Smith/The Wichita Eagle
WICHITA, KS - DECEMBER 16, 2010: Spirit Aerospace roll's out the first Sikorsky CH-53K helicopter at their plant in Wichita, Kansas on Thursday, December 16, 2010.
With dry ice and a thumping dance beat, Spirit AeroSystems opened the curtain on an important piece of its future on Thursday. Spirit held a celebration to mark completion of its first fuselage for the Sikorsky CH-53K helicopter for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Spirit has a contract for seven helicopters, some of which will be used solely for testing. That number likely will swell to 200 for the Marines, and could go beyond that if other service branches and other countries buy them.
That technological improvement starts with Spirit’s nearly all-composite fuselage. That lowers its weight and improves its ability to survive combat.
Because of improvements in technology, the helicopter can carry three times as much weight (27,000 pounds in difficult conditions), fly farther, take on full pallets of material for quick loading and defend itself from ground fire and missiles. It has fly-by-wire controls.
“This aircraft looks like a 53E, but that’s about it,” said Thomas Laux, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy, who was at the event.
“It is far more capable, has far more ability to carry things, navigate, has greater fuel management. Everything about this is the next generation in capability,” he said.
The contract for the 200 helicopters is said to range between $20æbillion and $30 billion.
Mick Maurer, Sikorsky's president of military systems, said his conversations with Pentagon officials suggest that this program is one that will survive pretty well through the expected defense budget cuts.
“The best way to stay funded is to perform, and that will be the case with this program,” he said.
The Marines already have said they are suffering from a shortage of airlift capability.
The first fuselage on display Thursday is due for delivery by Dec. 23 to Sikorsky. Spirit CEO Jeff Turner said that workers had to push to get it done in time.
“I think there’s a wet paint dab or two on there,” he said jokingly.
But he said that Spirit actually was fairly comfortable about hitting its deadline. The company has the ability to design more precisely than other companies so that there is less work involved in the production.
Sikorsky selected Spirit soon after the company split from Boeing. Although Spirit didn’t have any experience with helicopters, it has deep experience with large structures built from composites.
“We went with who we thought was the best in the industry,” said Sikorsky’s Maurer.
Spirit will see big benefits from the program. It will provide several hundred jobs, although program employment will rise and fall in years to come as the need ebbs and flows.
The company will build several fuselages for assembly into the finished aircraft for ground testing. The helicopter won’t see flight testing until 2014, officials said, and won’t be deployed in any numbers until 2019.
“We needed to diversify the base, and this is an important piece of diversification for a couple reasons,” he said. “Certainly it’s a helicopter and it’s new customer and it’s military. We’ve done military derivatives of commercial airplanes, like the P-8A, but this is the first stand-alone military vehicle that we’ve been a part of building.”
Reach Dan Voorhis at 316-268-6577 or dvoorhis@wichitaeagle.com.
Read more:
http://www.kansas.com/2010/12/17/1637576/spirit-unveils-first-sikorsky.html#ixzz19GSVMBxZ
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/ch-53k.htm
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