Black Hawk

This story tells, in clear detail, how Sikorsky Aircraft developed, tested, modified, and produced one of the most successful helicopters in the world. Written by the man considered to be the father of the Black Hawk, Ray Leoni explains how Sikorsky used innovative designs and advanced technologies to meet the Army's stringent specifications for aircraft performance, survivability, and reliability. With its creative Black Hawk design, Sikorsky won an uphill, highly-contested battle for one of the world's largest helicopter programs, which reestablished the company as a leader in the world community of helicopter producers. The Black Hawk has demonstrated unprecedented mission versatility and survivability and proven itself to be an outstanding war-fighting machine, in addition to performing world-wide rescue and humanitarian missions.

The Army program began in 1972 with the issuance of Requests for Proposals for the Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System to the U.S. helicopter industry. Boeing Vertol and Sikorsky both were awarded contracts to design and build prototype Black Hawks for side-by-side evaluation. Those awards set off an intense four-year competition between the two companies that culminated in the final production selection in 1976. That competition focused on developing the best possible helicopter to offer for production selection by the Army following a seven-month fly-off evaluation. During this critical evaluation, a night-time crash of one of Sikorsky's three prototypes occurred with 14 Army personnel aboard. This book explores the cause and results of that crash, and describes how its consequences actually strengthened Sikorsky's competitive position. It also describes in considerable technical detail the problems Sikorsky encountered during prototype development in vibration, speed performance, maneuverability, and handling qualities, and how they were solved in time for the production award. Many of the key people responsible for the success of the Black Hawk program are identified throughout this book.