Design Freeze Milestone for SkyHook HLV

The Boeing Company and SkyHook International Inc. have announced the “freezing” of the design configuration of the SkyHook Heavy Lift Vehicle (HLV), meaning that the aircraft’s overall performance and layout have been finally established.

Since July 2008, the work by Boeing and SkyHook on the SkyHook HLV’s structural and systems design, and its concept of operations has resulted in the addition of a three-piece tail for enhanced manoeuvrability, integration of lifting and thrusting propulsion systems, and improved aerodynamics for increased payload capacity and range.

Kenneth Laubsch, Boeing’s SkyHook programme manager, said that both Boeing Advanced Rotorcraft Systems and SkyHook International Inc. are “extremely pleased with the progress on the engineering of the aircraft.” Mr Laubsch described the programme’s achievements as “something revolutionary in the advancement of this extraordinary technology and the aerospace industry in general.”

The next major milestone in the SkyHook programme will be the detailed design phase in 2011, which will centre on the design, analysis and specification of all hardware, software, and related aircraft and ground support systems interfaces

Rob Mayfield, the director of SkyHook, says that the SkyHook HLV’s technology “is like nothing that has ever existed.” He said that the aircraft’s operational capability will allow SkyHook’s customers to “radically change the way they re-supply and operate in remote regions, especially the north.” In particular, he referred to the oil and gas industry, in which there are significant pressures on cost, speed, safety and environmental impact. He says that the SkyHook HLV represents “solutions to each of these challenges in various applications.”

The SkyHook is designed to carry sling loads of up to 80,000 pounds (40-tons) as far as 200 nautical miles without refuelling. Such a capability is not currently available anywhere else but, according to SkyHook, is desired by several industries, including oil exploration and mining operations in the Canadian Arctic and Alaska, as well as companies operating in remote locations in South America, Europe and Africa.

Boeing is designing and will fabricate a production SkyHook HLV prototype at its Rotorcraft Systems facility in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania. The new aircraft will initially be certified by Transport Canada and the FAA, and the first SkyHook HLV aircraft is scheduled to fly in 2014.