Sikorsky Aircraft officially opens new facility at FAFO campus

Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. officially opened a new facility at its Florida Assembly and Flight Operations (FAFO) campus, establishing experimental assembly line operations for the new CH-53K heavy lift helicopter. The CH-53K helicopter Florida Assembly and Flight Operations facility consists of approximately 60,000 square feet of space. The building, originally the home of Pratt & Whitney-Rocketdyne, has been completely updated to create a modern assembly area. Overhead power and air dropdowns, new aircraft work stands, and overhead cranes have been installed to support aircraft final assembly and rotor head/quality control assembly operations.The state-of-the-art facility also provides wireless data connections to all operator plasma data screens. The new FAFO operation will introduce the use of digital operation sheets to aid in assembly and operate a four-position flight line to produce the new aircraft. Five System Development and Demonstration (SDD) prototype aircraft will be built at the FAFO facility, with two additional airframe test articles produced at Sikorsky’s main manufacturing plant in Stratford, Conn. Once assembled, the aircraft will be delivered to the Sikorsky Development Flight Center (DFC) in West Palm Beach, Fla., to undergo flight testing.