Helicopters

The world's fastest helicopter is being set out to pasture as the British Army announces that its last five Westland Lynx helicopters will be formally retired on January 31 after 40 years of active service.

Aurora Flight Sciences has successfully demonstrated an autonomous flight system that can be retrofitted to existing helicopters. A US Marine Corps UH-1H​ AACUS-enabled helicopter demonstrated its autonomous flight and operational capabilities​ by executing a series of re-supply missions.

Yamaha announced today that it will show a multi-rotor YMR-01 drone at tomorrow's Next Generation Agriculture Expo in Tokyo. The YMR-01 is one of many new agricultural drones to be launched at the expo, but it is a landmark in that it is the first multicopter to be shown by Yamaha.​

The US President's next official rotorcraft ride has made its maiden flight as a 250-hour flight test program for the Sikorsky VH-92A helicopter begins. According to Sikorsky parent company Lockheed Martin, the future Marine One took to the skies at Lockheed's Owego, New York facilities on July 28.

The US Army's fleet of Chinook helicopters will be getting a bit more muscle over the next decade as Boeing ramps up for construction and testing of three CH-47F Block II airframes. This is part of a modernization program to provide the Chinook with more lifting power and a stronger fuselage.

Sikorsky has announced that is will repurpose 10 ex-US military Black Hawk helicopters for aerial firebombing operations and year-round emergency and disaster relief in Australia and New Zealand.

Laser weapons have been tested on ships, planes, and even armored vehicles, but Raytheon has pushed the envelope further again by successfully testing a high-energy laser mounted on an Apache AH-64 attack helicopter and locking onto and hitting an unmanned target.

The 52nd edition of the Paris Air Show has taken over Le Bourget Airport in Paris this week. Before the show opens to the public on Friday, let's take a look at what trade and media visitors have been treated to so far – both in the sky and on the ground.

​If you want a helicopter to be faster in forward flight, why not just give it some wings and a set of props? That was the thinking behind the Eurocopter X3 demonstrator aircraft. Airbus is building on that concept, in the form of the Rapid And Cost-Effective Rotorcraft – or Racer, for short.

​​Although Airbus' passenger-carrying drones may still be years away, that hasn't stopped the aerospace company from getting an autonomous helicopter off the ground. A demonstrator version of the VSR700 Optionally Piloted Vehicle (OPV) has recently made its first self-piloted test flights.

Lockheed Martin has released a new video showing one of its two S-97 Raider prototype attack helicopters strutting its aerial stuff. The Raider is being developed as part of a bid to provide the US armed forces with their next generation of combat rotorcraft.

Lockheed Martin has provided a glimpse of its Sikorsky-Boeing Future Vertical Lift concept. The futuristic helicopter comes in Assault and Attack variants that build on the X2 demonstrator that set an unofficial helicopter speed record in 2010.