Page 25 - ADT JULY - AUGUST 2022 Online Magazine

ing, and engineers. With such a horizontal view, MA Group, one of the few private companies in the sector, will never
one can plan better. We cherry pick, based on turn into a conglomerate, avers Graziano. “We will not be able to
what the industry and our customers need.” do big landing gears, because we are not in that market. But we
want to be recognized as the best in our niche because we think
A First Half to Remember the market and our customers need the same capability and agility. [ REPORT ]
The first half of the year has been especially Being small and agile, we have the ability to provide customized
good for the Italian mid-size company, which solutions. That works to our advantage.”
is an integral part of two major programs that
involve three of the biggest OEMs in the busi- Small, But Packing a Punch
ness. In April, the company was selected to “It is not usual that you find such capabilities in a small company,
design and produce the fully integrated land- not only on the engineering side but also for qualification and test-
ing gear system for Sikorsky-Boeing’s Defiant ing,” says Graziano. “We are responsible for the full landing gear
X helicopter, which is one of the two finalists system of Defiant X. We design, build, qualify and test the system.
for the US Army’s future long-range assault It is unusual to find all these capabilities in a small company.”
aircraft (FLRAA) competition. More recently,
the company announced that it had provided a “We have wide experience in designing landing gears for such
“clean sheet” Landing System design for Airbus kinds of applications, especially in these kinds of defence helicop-
Helicopters’ Racer high speed compound ters that have crashworthiness requirements,” says Giorgio Iannotti,
helicopter. The company is the technical and MA Group SVP Business and Product Development, referring to
industrial leader of an international partnership, the Defiant X helicopter.
also involving other entities from Italy, Latvia,
and Slovakia, that has developed and qualified “IT IS TYPICAL TECHNOLOGY THAT WE HAVE
the Racer landing system. BEEN DESIGNING IN ITALY FOR QUITE A WHILE,

The two programs involve the development of IN FACT FROM THE 70S. DEFIANT IS A BIG
aircraft that break the mould and provide pos- HELICOPTER, BUT WE DO FIXED WING AIRCRAFT
sibilities that have not existed. While Defiant X THAT ARE BIGGER. THIS IS RIGHT IN OUR
is designed to fly twice as fast and twice as far NICHE. FOR THIS PROGRAM, WE HAVE APPLIED
as the Black Hawk, Racer, which is scheduled
to have its first flight by the end of 2022, will SOME TECHNOLOGIES THAT WE USE ON OTHER
have a maximum cruise speed of more than APPLICATIONS, ESPECIALLY ON THE ACTUATION
400 km/h, compared to current in-service heli- SIDE.“
copters that, on average, have a top speed of
260 km/h). Providing landing systems for such The Racer Landing System, which is integrated inside the H/C Wing
revolutionary aircraft is a challenge that the and Fuselage and features composite doors flushing the aerody-
company, which is disrupting a market tradition- namic wing profile, was conceived to significantly reduce drag and
ally dominated by conglomerates with a much noise when retracted, especially during high-speed missions, even
larger global footprint, is happy to take on. while providing a large wheel track for safe landing when extended.
“The unique design of the shock absorbers will allow the helicopter
Graziano is optimistic that Sikorsky-Boeing will to land and take-off safely from a helideck during rescue operations,
be chosen to build the FLRAA prototype that which is one of the special missions for which the platform and
will be the successor to the Sikorsky UH-60 its landing system are being developed” says Pietro Persico, the
Black Hawk. “The Defiant X program has a lot company’s Engineering, Research, and Lab Test Director.
going for it,” he says. “The experience of the
two OEMs, the fact that the machine is proven
and is already flying; there is just no compari-
son. Defiant X is what the Army needs.”

The company’s U.S. operations consist of three
facilities - two in New York and one in North
Carolina. Expansion in the U.S., at least in the
near future, will depend on whether Defiant X
is selected by the Army for the Future Long
Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program. A
decision is expected in September. “If Defiant
X goes through, we will almost double the size
of the company in the U.S., including the supply
chain,” says Graziano. “We will have about 200
employees.”

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