Collins applies commercial seating tech to military helicopter

Collins Aerospace will supply the DEFIANT X with armoured pilot, cabin crew and troop seats. And its Perigon flight control computer will tackle the helicopter's utility management, prognostic health and autonomy.

Lockheed Martin Sikorsky-Boeing has selected Collins Aerospace to provide all three seating platforms and its Perigon computer for the DEFIANT X advanced utility helicopter, a finalist for the U.S. Army's Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) competition.

Collins will supply the DEFIANT X helicopter with armored pilot and co-pilot, cabin crew and troop seats. Each Collins seating product will be lightweight, ergonomically designed for comfort and rigorously tested to meet or exceed the Army's stringent crashworthiness requirements. Collins has missionised its commercial technology to create differentiated rotary-wing military seating solutions to improve warfighter comfort and readiness.

"Our suite of military seating is designed, engineered and manufactured to deliver optimal value to our customers and to best support warfighter safety and comfort," says Cynthia Muklevicz, vice president of business development for Interiors at Collins Aerospace. "Collins' rotary-wing military seating solutions offer a generational advancement over current technology in use today that we expect to significantly reduce operator fatigue and improve mission effectiveness and success."

In addition to seating, Collins will also supply its Perigon computer for DEFIANT X. With a modular open systems approach (MOSA) and the ability to provide 20 times the processing power of Collins' existing flight control computers, Perigon will enable future flight control and vehicle management capabilities for next-generation aircraft.

"Perigon's enhanced processing power will allow it to integrate numerous DEFIANT X functions, including flight control, utility management, prognostic health and advanced flight modes such as autonomy," says Kim Kinsley, vice president and general manager, Environmental and Airframe Control Systems for Collins Aerospace. "By using a single computer to support a multitude of functions, Perigon will help reduce the number of computers onboard the aircraft thus reducing weight, volume and power consumption across the platform while enabling enhanced performance."