Sikorsky Innovations launched to redefine future of vertical flight

Sikorsky Aircraft has launched its new technology development organization - Sikorsky Innovations - at a program attended by more than 100 government, education, business, technology and other officials at the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford.

The mission of Sikorsky Innovations is to develop and mature the technologies, products and processes that will redefine the future of vertical flight. The organization builds on Sikorsky's nearly 90 years of innovation and will increase the scope of previous efforts by expanding collaborative arrangements spanning government technology agencies, academic institutions, other UTC facilities, and entrepreneurial businesses where research and product development will take place in cooperation with Sikorsky's engineers and technicians. Projects are currently under way at more than 20 locations nationwide.

As a business-focused organization as well, Sikorsky Innovations will tailor Sikorsky Aircraft processes to provide technology customers with compelling proposals that shorten execution timelines and reduce costs. Sikorsky plans to align more than $1 billion of investments and contract R&D in the organization's work over the next 10 years.

To accelerate growth of the Sikorsky Innovations global network, Sikorsky plans on expanding its collaboration and investments in small, agile high-technology companies with aligned interests. Sikorsky recently completed such an investment in Eagle Aviation Technologies LLC of Hampton, Va. Sikorsky Innovations, while a "virtual" organization, is based at the company's main facility in Stratford, Conn.

"Sikorsky Innovations will identify our customers' toughest, high-value challenges and create solutions by understanding the requirements, quickly maturing technology options, and demonstrating solutions in flight," said Mark Miller, Vice President of Research and Engineering. "We are currently working on challenges in the areas of high-speed flight, optionally piloted aircraft, systems that enable safe operation in blinding, brown-out conditions, and many others that only a few years ago might have been considered technologically and economically unfeasible."

"Under founder Igor Sikorsky's leadership, Sikorsky introduced the first practical helicopter, the first four-engine airplane, the first enclosed cockpit aircraft, and many other innovations. Pioneering the future, accomplishing firsts, and establishing world records are all in our DNA," added Chris

VanBuiten, Director of Sikorsky Innovations."Sikorsky Innovations is poised to continue and accelerate this legacy by engineering new process technologies that will result in new rapid-prototyping tools, advanced manufacturing automation, virtual reality simulation, high-performance computing, and many other development game-changers," VanBuiten said.