Sikorsky lands deal Down Under

On the eve of the biennial Farnborough International Airshow this week, at which aircraft manufacturers often reveal their biggest sales of the year, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. quietly landed a deal to sell 24 Seahawk helicopters to the government of Australia for $2.1 billion.

A subsidiary of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp., Sikorsky has its main production plant in Stratford and is the largest employer in Fairfield County with more than 9,000 workers there. In the first quarter, Sikorsky sales totaled just under $1.4 billion; UTC is scheduled to disclose its second-quarter results on July 21 after deadline.

It was the largest helicopter sale revealed by Sikorsky since the early part of the year, when a $3.1 billion proposed sale to Taiwan was followed by the United Kingdom choosing the Sikorsky S-92 helicopter as its preferred aircraft for commercial search and rescue operations, an agreement worth potentially billions of dollars more for Sikorsky.

Sikorsky”™s newest deal is subject to the approval of the U.S. government, which was expected given Australia”™s status as an ally.

Australia wants the new Seahawks for anti-submarine and surface warfare missions, as well as surveillance and search-and-rescue operations. The country expects the helicopters to be used as well for future disaster and humanitarian relief efforts in the Pacific Rim.

Each Seahawk would be equipped with two engines from Fairfield-based General Electric, and GE will supply another dozen spare engines built at its factory in Lynn, Mass. Other contractors include Lockheed Martin Corp., benefiting its helicopter finishing plant in Owego, N.Y.; and Raytheon Corp., which will supply systems from a facility in Portsmouth, R.I.

Separately, the Pentagon announced a deal to sell Turkey a dozen refurbished Sikorsky Oceanhawk maritime helicopters, in a deal valued at $228 million for prime contractor GE.

GE, Sikorsky and its sister UTC divisions Pratt & Whitney and Hamilton Sundstrand are prominent exhibitors at Farnborough, along with smaller local aerospace parts makers like Crane Co. and Hexcel Corp., both based in Stamford.

The conference is expected to be dominated by Boeing Co.”™s 787 Dreamliner passenger jet, which is designed to use GE”™s GEnx engine; a braking system from Crane; and composites from Hexcel.

On the rotorcraft front, Boeing is also expected to show off models of its A130 Hummingbird unmanned helicopter.

Sikorsky may catch its own fair share of attention at Farnborough, both with its own efforts to develop unmanned aircraft and with its X2 prototype helicopter, which features a rear rotor mounted like that on the wing of a prop plane.

Designed to push the helicopter to record speeds, at press deadline Sikorsky had yet to reveal whether it has broken that record, which it had previously vowed to do by June 2010. The company flew the helicopter at nearly 210 mph; the record of 249 mph has stood since 1986 when the speed was achieved by a Westland Lynx.

With volume sales of X2 helicopters still years away and the commercial helicopter market still stagnant, for now Sikorsky remains dependent on U.S. military and international helicopter sales.