Canadian Sea King Replacement - Finally Flies...

[TonyO]

One bit of good news for the Canadian Armed Forces today - Sikorsky have just flown the first prototype CH-148 Cyclone, a fly-by-wire variant of the S-92. This will replace the CH-124 Sea King which is in dire need of replacement, but that won't be until about 2010/11 because the Cyclone is running a spectacular 30 months behind schedule!!!

[Razor61]

I'm amazed how small the rotor diameter is compared to the fuselage and that of other similar sized helicopters.
The Merlin has a much longer rotor blade... not much in it from the rotor tips and the tail rotor and it overlaps the front of the fuselage by quite some margin compared to the S-92.

[Spock]

Not far off looking like a Merlin to me................

[ythanpythan]

The rotor size may just be an optical illusion as the picture has caught them at about 45 degrees to the viewer. Then again maybe they are just wee diddy ones!

[Razor61]

Just had a look...
S-92 rotor diameter is 17.17m
Merlin is 18.60m

I remember when the VIP blue S-92 flew over the house some time ago that the rotors looked smaller in relation to the size of the aircraft. Perhaps because of their width they are not needed to be so large? Anyway, nothing to do with the topic at hand so i'll leave it at that.

[raiford]

it is a nice looking machine, and as for the rotor blades, size does'nt matter does it? it's how it performs!

[MartinNeedham]

Great looking peice of kit, love the Avatar Mr O!

Martin

[PeterR]

That's so UGLY!

[sjt]

Only 30 months overdue? Thats not bad really is it! Would be a lot longer if it was UK building it!