Eurocopter Ponders X3 Helicopter’s Next Steps

June 17, 2013
Credit: Eurocopter

Tony Osborne London andGraham Warwick Washington
Eurocopter's X3 has claimed the unofficial helicopter speed record from Sikorsky's X2, achieving 255 kt. in level flight and 263 kt. in a dive, and raising the question of what comes next for the European manufacturer's high-speed rotorcraft concept.
In flights at the Istres test base near Marseille, France, in early June the X3 experimental compound helicopter beat its previous top speed of 232 kt. set in May 2011. The new round of high-speed trials follows a lay-up during which the aircraft's gearbox was tweaked to operate at the full power level provided by its two Turbomeca RTM322 turboshafts.

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