Search

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

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.



Contract Updates

R&M Government Services (Las Cruces, New Mexico) – $23,894,784

R&M Government Services,* Las Cruces, New Mexico, has been awarded a maximum $23,894,784 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-quantity contract for battery compartments. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 3204 (a)(1), as stated in the Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This…


L3Harris Technologies Inc. (Clifton, New Jersey) – $9,571,947

L3Harris Technologies Inc., Clifton, New Jersey, is being awarded $9,571,947 for a firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of 74 radio frequency amplifiers in support of Navy F/A-18E/F/G aircraft. The contract does not include an option provision. All work will be…


Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. a Lockheed Martin Co. (Stratford, Connecticut) – $21,600,000

Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a Lockheed Martin Co., Stratford, Connecticut, is awarded a not-to-exceed $21,600,000 cost reimbursable undefinitized order (N0001926F1016) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N0001923G0002). This order provides for instantaneous access to 105% Transient Engine Torque test and…


Amentum Mitie Pacific LLC (Chantilly, Virginia) – $85,236,794

Amentum Mitie Pacific LLC, Chantilly, Virginia, is awarded an $85,236,794 fixed-price-award-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for base operating support services at Navy Support Facility, Diego Garcia. Work will be performed at Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory, and is expected to be…