Sikorsky has unveiled a vision for urban air mobility—a vision that doesn’t include creating a new autonomous urban air flyer. That’s because Sikorsky already has one: a helicopter.
The company believes vertical lift technology will be essential to tomorrow’s urban landscape—and the helicopter, enhanced with technological improvements in speed, autonomy and intelligence, could “fundamentally evolve urban mobility, setting new standards for safe, reliable transportation in congested cities.”
Cities are growing and traffic is getting worse, which is fueling the growth of the urban air mobility sector of the aerospace industry. Sikorsky believes helicopters will be key players in that growth. That’s why, rather than creating a new aircraft for urban air mobility, Sikorsky is developing automation and pilot-assist solutions for its current helicopters. It is also working on electric propulsion technologies—another important feature of the market.
“Helicopters are used every day in the congested, dynamic airspaces in and around cities,” said Jonathan Hartman, disruptive technologies lead at Sikorsky Innovations. “We feel very strongly there are some emerging technologies coming out that can help assist and make that mission better and those technologies we have been developing for the last decade.”
Sikorsky's vision for urban air mobility.
Sikorsky’s strategy is centered around its Matrix technology—a retrofit solution integrated into the cockpit that partially automates the helicopter’s performance, easing the workload on human operators.
Sikorsky is installing the system on a Black Hawk for trials with the U.S. Army. Significantly, the company recently demonstrated the technology to a group of non-pilots—the kind of people who could someday be using automated helicopters.
“We were flying […] folks who had never been in or around a helicopter before,” said Hartman. “With an hour of training in our simulator, they were able to take the Matrix interface that is in the cockpit, in the right-hand seat and operate that air vehicle on an extended-duration mission.”
Sikorsky is also partnering with The Spaceship Company and elevator company Otis to develop its strategy.
“It's an announcement of a beginning. It's us putting our flag in the ground,” said Hartman. “We are looking forward to continue being an active and visible participant in this ongoing conversation.”
Read more about developments in urban air mobility at Boeing’s Autonomous Passenger Flying Vehicle Takes Its First Flight.