Page 52 - Australian Defence Magazine July-August 2021

52 FUTURE VERTICAL LIFT
JULY-AUGUST 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
survivability and endurance in this aircraft,” explained Dan McQuestin, Bell’s business director for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Rim at the recent Land Forces ex- hibition in Brisbane.
McQuestin pointed to the success of the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, also a tilt-rotor design, with more than half a million flying hours under its belt, as an example of what the technology can deliver.
“The move to FVL is going to be an enormous step- change in the way the US Army fights, at the end of the day the kind of capability you can achieve with a tilt-rotor is something that can replace anything from a medium he- licopter upwards,” he said.
The Lockheed Martin-Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 (for Sikor- sky, Boeing) Defiant JMR-TD aircraft first flew in March 2019 and by the end of last year had demonstrated speeds of up to 220 knots, as it progresses through its flight test program. In production form, the rotorcraft will be known as the Defiant X.
“The JMR-TD has been in the risk-reduction phase for a number of years, so we’ve been able to determine what it is the US Army wants in future rotorcraft, and refine those requirements and reduce the risk,” said Jay Macklin, Lock- heed Martin’s FVL business director.
“The future is going to be a dangerous place and there’s going to be greater need for speed and manoeuvrability.
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