Sikorsky says it has completed developmental flight tests of its S-92 helicopter, fitted with a search and rescue automatic flight control system. A company news release says the AFCS is “the first to fly automated approaches to a set position ‘hooked’ by a search radar, flight management system way point, thermal imager, or digital map” In effect, it enables flight crews to continuously look out of the cockpit, making possible “a nighttime, [instrument flight rules] rescue in icing conditions.” The civil S-92 system is a subset of a “sophisticated” system in the company’s CSAR-X entry the H-92 Superhawk.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…