Helicopters

​Boeing has unveiled its MH-139 helicopter, which will be entered into the UH-1N Replacement Program competition to find a replacement for the US Air Force's venerable UH-1N “Huey” multi-role helicopter fleet.

In our rush to accept multicopter drones into our world, have we forgotten the advantages of the humble helicopter? One Canadian company says its single top rotor helicopter drones are as stable and easy to fly as a multicopter, but with several key advantages.

In what Lockheed Martin claims is a first, pilot-optional helicopters and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) have worked as a team to successfully carry out firefighting operations and a search and rescue mission.

In North Virginia, Aurora Flight Sciences announced that it's integrating the company's Tactical Autonomous Aerial Logistics System on a UH-1H helicopter as part of a program to produce a "platform agnostic" system that can be used on almost any VTOL aircraft to make it pilot optional.

Several years ago, students from the University of Maryland achieved the world's longest human-powered helicopter flight. In 2014, a new team took over and began converting the aircraft to solar-electric power. It made its first purely sun-powered flight late last month.​

When heavy fog or clouds roll in, navigating can become a dangerous proposition for a helicopter pilot. A new augmented reality vision system out of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) though, could help them see clearly through difficult weather using more than just their eyes.

The Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion helicopter has flexed its muscles, lifting a 27,000-lb (12,245-kg) payload at Sikorsky's Development Flight Test Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.

A Sikorsky S-76 commercial helicopter has taken off and flown autonomously from Stratford, Connecticut to Robertson Airport in Plainville, Connecticut, covering a distance of around 30 miles (48 km). The entire flight was executed by an operator using only a tablet device.

Last October, Sikorsky's CH-53K King Stallion heavy lift helicopter made its maiden flight. That marked the start of a three-year, 2,000-hour test program that has continued with the aircraft making its first external load flight test carrying 20,000 lb.

In an effort to improve safety, the non-profit helicopter safety organization HeliOffshore is using eye-tracking technology to gain a greater understanding of how helicopter pilots monitor cockpit instruments in flight.

Helicopters are versatile machines, but when it comes to takeoffs and landings, they are very fussy creatures. DARPA recently demonstrated a new robotic landing gear system in an unmanned flight that is able to land on broken or uneven terrain with a high degree of safety.

Felix Baumgartner rose to fame in 2012 by setting a new record for high-altitude skydiving. His latest stunt saw him at the controls of a Bolkov BO105 aerobatic helicopter, seeing how closely he could track a drift car.