Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky division has received a Restricted Category Special Airworthiness Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its S-70M Black Hawk helicopter.
“With type certification, new production S-70M Black Hawk helicopters in the latest configuration are available to the U.S. commercial / civil market for the first time,” Jason Lambert, vice president of Sikorsky Global Commercial & Military Systems, said. “Internationally, where the FAA restricted category is not widely accepted, we can now discuss with other civil aviation authorities the potential of validating the aircraft for challenging civil operations in their countries’ airspace.”
Lockheed expects the certification to broaden the military-designed helicopter market by enabling domestic civil and commercial operators to purchase new Black Hawk aircraft factory direct.
Per officials, the FAA certified the S-70M aircraft in accordance with Part 21 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations in the Restricted Category, basing certification on the U.S. Army UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter.
“As Sikorsky’s authorized S-70 Black Hawk training partner, FlightSafety sees how important the S-70M model will be to the global helicopter market,” David Harper, center manager, FlightSafety Learning Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, said. “We invested heavily to develop an all-new S-70M pilot training curriculum with advanced courseware and upgrade our flight simulator to a full motion Level-D capability.”
Harper said efforts have begun to work with the FAA to obtain Part 142 approval for a training course.
“FlightSafety is excited that pilots requiring S-70M initial type rating or an Airline Transport Pilot upgrade will soon be able to get those ratings at our facility in West Palm Beach,” he said.