TIGHITCO today announced it will participate as a member of Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation's S-97 RAIDER helicopter supplier team.

The S-97 RAIDER is a next-generation helicopter being constructed for evaluation in 2014 by the U.S. military as a replacement candidate for the U.S. Army's Armed Aerial Scout helicopter.

"TIGHITCO is pleased to team with Sikorsky Aircraft on the S-97 RAIDER™ program," said Christopher Hamel, Senior Vice President of TIGHITCO. "The TIGHITCO Aerostructures Group is a proven supplier and will bring its vast experience with advanced high-temperature carbon composites to the project."

Sikorsky and its team of suppliers, including TIGHITCO, are self-funding the design and manufacture of two S-97 RAIDER prototype aircraft for the 2014 flight evaluation. The program is currently in the advanced design stage.

TIGHITCO's initial engineering design and development work for the RAIDER aircraft will be performed at its division in Berlin, Conn. Future production would most likely occur in North Charleston, S.C. TIGHITCO's Aerostructures Group recently announced plans to open a 300,000 square foot advanced composites manufacturing center in the Palmetto Commerce Park and relocate its corporate headquarters there.

The RAIDER aircraft program follows Sikorsky's successful X2 technology demonstrator aircraft, which in September 2010 achieved more than 250 knots flight speed, or twice the average cruise speed of a conventional helicopter. The National Aeronautic Association awarded Sikorsky the 2010 Robert J. Collier Trophy for this achievement and for its potential as a future rotorcraft technology.

As an X2 aircraft design, the S-97 RAIDER helicopter will feature twin coaxial counter-rotating main rotors and a pusher propeller to provide dramatic improvements in maneuverability, hover efficiency, high/hot climate performance and speed. Defined as a light tactical helicopter, the single-engine RAIDER aircraft will weigh in at 10,000-lbs maximum gross weight.

The X2 design is scalable, opening it up to a variety of potential mission uses including combat search and rescue, armed aerial scout, medical evacuation, attack, special operations, VIP and offshore oil transport.

TIGHITCO is among the more than 35 companies nationwide, announced as preferred suppliers by Sikorsky on January 12, during the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Aviation Symposium in National Harbor, Md. near Washington, D.C.