Defiant X to be powered by new Honeywell turboshaft
The HTS7500 turboshaft is powering Defiant X. (Photo: Honeywell)
The new HTS7500 7,000hp turboshaft engine from Honeywell has been selected by the Sikorsky-Boeing team to power the Defiant X candidate for the US Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) programme.
In joining Team Defiant, Honeywell Aerospace Defense & Space president Ricky Freeman said on 10 February that the HTS7500 engine ‘will provide the Army with an agile, fast and manoeuvrable platform that will help ensure overmatch capability in the future battlespace’.
According to Honeywell, the HTS7500 consumes 18% less fuel and is 42% more powerful than the latest version of its T55-714 engine aboard CH-47/MH-47 Chinook helicopters.
The HTS7500 also ‘offers the lowest total weight compared to other engines in its horsepower class’, Honeywell added, meaning that it can ‘fly farther, faster with a higher power-to-weight ratio than any comparable engine’.
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