The Irish Air Corps had selected the all new Sikorsky S.92 as its next medium-range
SAR helicopter, an order for three being due to be placed in February 2002.
An option on two transport models wass planned as well. The IAC would have been
the first military customer for the S.92. However, the contract was delayed
by legal action taken by Eurocopter, one of the unsuccessful bidders, and in
July 2002 it was announced that the order would not go ahead to save money.
A lease or public/private partnership deal is being investigated as an alternative
by the Department of Defence. The photo above shows prototype N292SA in flight.
Photo: Sikorsky
The colour scheme for the IAC SAR aircraft has not yet been published, but will probably be higher visibility than the scheme illustrated below:
Photo by Simon Munt, taken at Le Bourget, France
Sikorsky are assuming a colour scheme like the one shown in the artist's concept below (click on this image for a larger version showing the SAR scenario [136 KB]):
The layout of the SAR S.92s may be as illustrated below (Sikorsky drawings):
These view shows the location of the rescue winch and the rear loading ramp:
(photos by Helico Passion, taken at Le Bourget)
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