TIGHITCO Joins Sikorsky’s S-97 RAIDER™ Team to Build a Light Tactical Next-Generation Helicopter
January 13, 2012
N. CHARLESTON, SC – January 12, 2012 – TIGHITCO (T-I-G-hit-co) today announced it will participate as a member of Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation’s S-97 RAIDER™ helicopter supplier team. The S-97 RAIDER™ is a next-generation helicopter being constructed for evaluation in 2014 by the U.S. military as a replacement candidate for the U.S. Army’s Armed Aerial Scout helicopter.
“TIGHITCO is pleased to team with Sikorsky Aircraft on the S-97 RAIDER™ program,” said Christopher Hamel, Senior Vice President of TIGHITCO. “The TIGHITCO Aerostructures Group is a proven supplier and will bring its vast experience with advanced high-temperature carbon composites to the project.”
Sikorsky and its team of suppliers, including TIGHITCO, are self-funding the design and manufacture of two S-97 RAIDER™ prototype aircraft for the 2014 flight evaluation. The program is currently in the advanced design stage.
TIGHITCO’s initial engineering design and development work for the RAIDER™ aircraft will be performed at its division in Berlin, Conn. Future production would most likely occur in North Charleston, S.C. TIGHITCO’s Aerostructures Group recently announced plans to open a 300,000 square foot advanced composites manufacturing center in the Palmetto Commerce Park and relocate its corporate headquarters there.
The RAIDER™ aircraft program follows Sikorsky’s successful X2™ technology demonstrator aircraft, which in September 2010 achieved more than 250 knots flight speed, or twice the average cruise speed of a conventional helicopter. The National Aeronautic Association awarded Sikorsky the 2010 Robert J. Collier Trophy for this achievement and for its potential as a future rotorcraft technology.
As an X2™ aircraft design, the S-97 RAIDER™ helicopter will feature twin coaxial counter-rotating main rotors and a pusher propeller to provide dramatic improvements in maneuverability, hover efficiency, high/hot climate performance and speed. Defined as a light tactical helicopter, the single-engine RAIDER™ aircraft will weigh in at 10,000-lbs maximum gross weight.
The X2™ design is scalable, opening it up to a variety of potential mission uses including combat search and rescue, armed aerial scout, medical evacuation, attack, special operations, VIP and offshore oil transport.
TIGHITCO is among the more than 35 companies nationwide, announced as preferred suppliers by Sikorsky on January 12, during the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Aviation Symposium in National Harbor, Md. near Washington, D.C.
For more information about the S-97 RAIDER™ program, please visit www.sikorsky.com.
About TIGHITCO
TIGHITCO, Inc. is a wholly owned company of The InterTech Group, located in North Charleston, S.C. TIGHITCO supplies advanced composites, insulation products and MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) services to the aerospace and defense market. TIGHITCO has operating companies in the U.S. and Mexico.
About Sikorsky
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX), is based in Stratford, Conn., and is a world leader in helicopter design, manufacture and service. United Technologies Corp., based in Hartford, Conn., provides a broad range of high-technology products and support services to the aerospace and building systems industries.
