Sign In
Search
Advanced / Transformational Technology

Sikorsky’s Optionally Piloted Black Hawk Makes First Flight, ‘Zero-Pilot’ Flights Planned for 2020

Dan Parsons By
SHARE:
Sikorsky’s Optionally Piloted Black Hawk Makes First Flight, ‘Zero-Pilot’ Flights Planned for 2020
A Black Hawk equipped with optionally-piloted vehicle (OPV) technology made its first flight at Sikorsky’s West Palm Beach, Fla., facility on May 29. Sikorsky is developing autonomous and OPV technology that builds on its fly-by-wire technology to ultimately reduce the number one cause of helicopter crashes: Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT). Photo courtesy Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company.

For the better part of an hour on May 29, one of the oldest existing UH-60 Black Hawks was flown with a full-authority fly-by-wire flight control system that eventually could allow the aircraft to fly without a pilot on board. Sikorsky [LMT] has developed a kit that removes all legacy mechanical flight controls from the aircraft and replaces them with its MATRIX technology to make it an optionally piloted vehicle. The company uses the phrase “optimally piloted vehicle” almost interchangeably…

Subscriber-only content. Please log in below.

Not a subscriber or registered user yet?

Please contact us at clientservices@accessintel.com or call us at 888-707-5814 (Monday – Thursday 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. and Friday 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET.), to start a free trial, get pricing information, order a reprint, or post an article link on your website.

Recommended

Advanced / Transformational Technology

Proposed Elimination of SDA And Space RCO Faces Opposition

Advanced / Transformational Technology

Shield AI, Destinus Demonstrating Collaborative Autonomy Between Drones For Use In Ukraine

Advanced / Transformational Technology

Navy Demos Dual Use Laser For Power Transfer And C-UAS

Advanced / Transformational Technology

Pentagon May Make ‘Tradeoffs’ For Low-Cost Autonomous Tech Without Reconciliation Funds, CTO Says

Trending

Baldwin Concerned With Army’s JLTV ‘Mismanagement,’ Seeks Support For Marines’ Procurement Plans
MDA Space to Acquire Blue Canyon from Raytheon to Reach US Defense Market
Defense Watch: Abrams Update, SSN-788 Ready, UAS and C-UAS News, FMS Deals
Air Force Examining Long-Term Buy Of 130 New Weapons Pylons For B-52Hs
Contract Awards

Congress Updates

Budget

House Appropriators Add Restrictions And Reporting Requirement To Battleship, Reject Cut

The chairman’s mark of the House Appropriations Committee’s (HAC) fiscal year 2027 defense appropriations bill funds the administration’s $1 billion request for the BBG(X) Trump-class battleship, but adds restrictions requiring […]

Congress

House Appropriators Concerned With ‘Risky’ Reconciliation Approach To Fund Munitions, F-35 Plans

The House Appropriations Committee has raised concern with the Trump administration’s “risky” approach to seeking significant fiscal year 2027 funding for key priorities such as critical munitions and F-35 procurement […]

Budget

Lawmakers Push Shipbuilding Accountability And Submarine Reports In House Appropriations Bill

The House Appropriations Committee’s mark of the FY ‘27 defense spending bill includes shipbuilding accountability provisions given increasing cost-to-complete requests and perennially delayed shipbuilding programs. The bill report said that […]

Congress

Six F-35Bs Delivered Without Radars Thus Far, Program Director Says

The U.S. Marine Corps thus far has received six F-35B fighters without radars, as the service waits on Northrop Grumman‘s [NOC] delivery of the AN/APG-85 radar, which is to replace […]

The Force Multipliers

Force Multipliers

Michael DiOrio – Dataminr

Force Multipliers

Arne Brinck – Dark Wolf Solutions

Force Multipliers

Jags Kandasamy – Latent AI

Force Multipliers

Force Multipliers – Krista McKendree

Job Feed

Post a Job // Post a Resume