The X-Wing was very different from these concepts. The X-Wing flew with a single fixed main rotor with blowers to attach the flow via the Coanda effect. The S-97 uses two conventional contra-rotating rotors. The X-wing was much more radical whereas the S-97 configuration has been in production usage for decades in the Kamov helicopters.
The innovation of the S-97 and it’s kin isn’t the main rotor but the pusher propellor which allows it to operate at speeds and altitudes far above what a conventional helicopter can achieve but it’s not fast enough for the main rotors to be locked in a fixed wing position, mainly because it’s not a good trade off for the roles which these fill.
It overall it kept quite a few design elements from the X wing such as the rigid wings on the main rotor and that the forward propulsion is achieved by a pusher rotor instead of the jet exhaust on the X wing.
Those aren't new things though, and it's not the crux of what the X wing was. The rigid rotor, the pusher propeller, had all been done already in the 1967 AH-56.The X wing has more in common with the F-35B than the S-97 has in common with the X wing. The S-97 is attempting to succeed where the AH-56 failed; it's supposed to do helicopter things with a helicopter frame and fulfill a helicopter role, but maybe have a little more speed and altitude capability. The F-35B is attempting to succeed where the X wing failed; it's supposed to do jet plane things with a jet plane frame and fulfill a jet plane role, but be able to do so in places and environments where a full sized runway doesn't fit.
Not sure you guys get it. The X-Wing could fly with a fully stopped main rotor. The rotor was completely still in forward flight, but then could start rotating for hover flight.
We get it the new Sikorsky helicopters use a rigid rotor just the like the X wing they don’t lock because they don’t fly as fast as the X wing and will operate primarily as helicopters.
They also receive about half of their forward momentum from the pusher motor.
The Defiant is the X wing with better trade offs to serve as helicopter rather than a pure VTOL.
I know it might look like nothing but a Kamov but it’s anything but. The Kamov uses flexible contra rotating rotors and is very much a traditional helicopter the new line from Sikorsky is very different.
I worked at Sik and was a rotorcraft engineer for 8 years, master's concentration in fluid mechanics. A stopped rotor with active flow control is a world and era apart from slowed rotor configurations. Almost none of the engineering overlaps, they're completely different approaches except for an end goal of wanting faster forward flight. Similar vs different is semantic at this point. It's like saying the bicycle gave rise to the hovercraft, which is true in a sense.
