United States CH53K helicopter first flew the maximum takeoff weight of over 38 tons

According to China's National Defense Science and technology information network reported that Sikorsky Aircraft Company for the United States Marine Corps development CH-53K "Stallion" King of heavy transport helicopter prototype has recently completed its first flight, the helicopter's maximum takeoff weight of 38.4 tons.

Completed its maiden flight of the prototype was called "1th engineering development prototype," (EDM-1), and its first flight time is 30 minutes, opened the prelude of the CH-53K prototype flight test. Sikorsky plans to use four prototypes of accumulated 2000 hours of test flights.

Sikorsky CH-53K says Maike·tuoluoke, Deputy Project Manager, EDM-1 the first test flight is an important milestone for the project. "We have many components and subsystems for independent testing of the aircraft on the ground on the test car, also on the aircraft also conducted a comprehensive system-level testing. Now, the project has entered a new stage to flight test the whole system. ”

In the tests, CH-53K demonstrates hover, fly, flying upside down and flying in these subjects, testing helicopter flight control performance. The company, the helicopter will also show above the ground 30 feet (about 9 meters) at the height of hover performance in order to test the effects of ground effect.

Under the plan, United States Marine Corps will spend $ 25.5 billion purchase of 200 of the helicopter.

CH-53K helicopter to debut in May 2014, plans to replace increasingly outdated CH-53E "Super Stallion" helicopters, who had in the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war is widely used.

Compared with the CH-53E,CH-53K payload, range and maximum takeoff weight has greatly improved. Advanced composite materials and optimizing the structure of the CH-53K the maximum takeoff weight of up to 38,400 kilograms, more than 5,300 kilograms CH-53E, payload to 2,270 kilograms, and reduce the demand for helicopter maintenance, reduce costs, improve efficiency, enhance survivability in a variety of environments.