The U.S. Marine Corps has given an official name to the CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter that United Technologies subsidiary Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. is building – King Stallion.
Sikorsky won a $3 billion contract in 2006 to design and build the aircraft.
The naming came at an unveiling ceremony for the new helicopter, which weighs 22 tons and can carry more than 27,000 pounds of external load, about three times that of its predecessor, the CH-53.
To accomplish that, Sikorsky said it used a GE Aviation T408 engine and designed a transmission system that efficiently transfers engine power to the main rotors. The King Stallion also includes Sikorsky’s most advanced rotor blade to date, with 12 percent more surface area than the CH-53.
Before starting construction of its prototype, Sikorsky designed the helicopter inside a 3D virtual reality lab at its Stratford headquarters. The aircraft will be produced in Florida.
The Marine Corps has said it intends to order 200 of the helicopters, according to Sikorsky, but the final number will depend on funding allocations from Congress.
According to Flightglobal.com, the CH-53k program faces a potential $1.04 billion cut over the next five years due to sequestration cuts in the fiscal year 2016 federal budget.
