Two years after a helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant and eight others crashed into a mist-shrouded California hillside, Sikorsky and parent company Lockheed Martin have reported the successful takeoff and landing of a “uninhabited” helicopter — with one major goal in mind: to allow pilots to fly more safely in low visibility when passengers are aboard.
Last Saturday was the first time Sikorsky flew a Black Hawk helicopter with no one on board, while the system had previously been tested with pilots in the cockpit.
The test, which was designed to replicate a fly through downtown Manhattan, took place at Fort Campbell, which is located northwest of Nashville on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. A video of the flight was shared on the internet.
Every storey, all the time
SUBSCRIBE FOR 99 CENTS
Recommended
Plans for a Mercedes-Benz dealership near Danbury International Airport are moving forward.
The Sikorsky helicopter took to the skies for the first time without pilots.
Danbury’s WestConn Park is causing traffic congestion and safety issues.
Arsen’s, a new weightlifting gym, will open in Stratford next month.
Connecticut facility is one of the largest for sale in the Northeast.
According to the report, CT’s investments in the film sector are paying dividends.
The campaign to enable electric vehicle sales in Connecticut is gaining steam once more.
How will the merger of Spirit and Frontier affect tourists at Bradley?
What we know and don’t know about the Webster-Sterling bank merger in Connecticut
As dealer lots continue to be emptied, more automobile purchasers are constructing their own.
BUSINESS
For the first time, Sikorsky’s Black Hawk chopper took to the skies without pilots.
Soule, Alexander
7:57 a.m., February 10, 2022
In February 2022, a Sikorsky-built UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter flies without a pilot at Fort Campbell, Ky., in a demonstration of autonomous flight technology developed with the help of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Photo by DARPA / Contributed
Two years after a helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant and eight others crashed into a mist-shrouded California hillside, Sikorsky and parent company Lockheed Martin have reported the successful takeoff and landing of a “uninhabited” helicopter — with one major goal in mind: to allow pilots to fly more safely in low visibility when passengers are aboard.
Last Saturday was the first time Sikorsky flew a Black Hawk helicopter with no one on board, while the system had previously been tested with pilots in the cockpit.
The test, which was designed to replicate a fly through downtown Manhattan, took place at Fort Campbell, which is located northwest of Nashville on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. A video of the flight was shared on the internet.
Every storey, all the time
SUBSCRIBE
Stratford-based Sikorsky has been developing its autonomous flight technology for more than a decade, combining current capabilities such as LIDAR pulses, which map terrain instantly, with patent filings on various components of the system produced by its own engineers in Connecticut.
Sensors to detect landing zones without pilot input on where aircraft may land safely, as well as assisting the system in analysing information on surroundings during flight and reacting in the moment like any pilot would.
