Sikorsky Aircraft plans to invest $1 billion over the next 10 years in research and development to redefine the future of vertical flight, the Stratford, Conn.-based helicopter manufacturer announced earlier this month. Spearheading this endeavor will be Sikorsky Innovations, a business-focused technology-development corporation that is charged with finding solutions to difficult vertical-lift problems and providing customers with proposals that shorten execution timelines and reduce costs. The new company, which has been working quietly for two years as an internal organization called Technology and Innovation, arrived at its February 1 launch party at the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford ready to show off a few products it has already developed.
“We wanted to wait until we had some real results, such as our build of the X2 Technology Demonstrator and our Darpa [Defense Advance Research Projects Agency] projects for Sandblaster and hostile-fire detection,” said Chris Van Buiten, director of Sikorsky Innovations. “We also wanted to demonstrate that we’ve grown our network of partners, teammates and customers; we’re doing research in about 40 places around the nation. We think we have achieved a critical mass of technology accomplishment and network and it is now time to accelerate that growth so that we can take on more of these projects.”
