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44-643: The Sikorsky S-72 was an experimental Sikorsky Aircraft compound helicopter developed as the Rotor Systems Research Aircraft (RSRA) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Army . The RSRA was a testbed for rotor and propulsion systems for high-speed. Sikorsky and Bell Helicopters competed for the RSRA contract. Bell's preferred proposal was

88-406: A fixed-wing aircraft without a main rotor. Unique among helicopters of its time, it was fitted with a crew emergency extraction system. This system, when activated, fired explosive bolts that severed the main rotor blades, escape panels were blown off the roof of the aircraft. The crew was then extracted using rockets, rather than by a traditional ejection seat as on fixed-wing aircraft. The RSRA

132-589: A leading helicopter manufacturer, producing such well-known models as the UH-60 Black Hawk and SH-60 Seahawk , and experimental types such as the Sikorsky S-72 . Sikorsky has supplied the Presidential helicopter since 1957. Sikorsky's VH-3 and VH-60 perform this role now. The company acquired Helicopter Support Inc. (HSI) in 1998. HSI handles non-U.S. government aftermarket support for parts and repair for

176-543: A possible spin-off rather than a tax-heavy sale. On July 20, 2015, Lockheed Martin announced an agreement to purchase Sikorsky from UTC for $ 9.0 billion. The deal required review from eight different jurisdictions, and the final approval came in November 2015. The sale was completed on November 6, 2015. In 1980, the American Helicopter Society International offered a prize of US$ 10,000 for

220-422: A similar alliance with either Embraer with its E-jet E2 or Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and its MRJ . On 21 December, Boeing and Embraer confirmed to be discussing a potential combination with a transaction subject to Brazilian government regulators, the companies' boards and shareholders approvals. The weight of Airbus and Boeing could help E2 and CSeries sales but the 100-150 seats market seems slow. As

264-508: A special program to restore U.S. competitiveness across all U.S. industries, Project Socrates , contributed to employment growth as the U.S. aerospace industry captured 72 percent of world aerospace market. By 1999 U.S. share of the world market fell to 52 percent. In the European Union , aerospace companies such as Airbus , Safran , BAE Systems , Thales , Dassault , Saab AB , Terma A/S , Patria Plc and Leonardo are participants in

308-456: Is Japan ), strong transportation infrastructure (#5, #1 is Hong Kong ), a healthy economy (#10, #1 is China ), but high costs (#7, #1 is Denmark ) and average tax policy (#36, #1 is Qatar ). Following were Canada , Singapore , Switzerland and United Kingdom . Within the US, the most attractive was Washington state , due to the best Industry (#1), leading Infrastructure (#4, New Jersey

352-403: Is #1) and Economy (#4, Texas is #1), good labor (#9, Massachusetts is #1), average tax policy (#17, Alaska is #1) but is costly (#33, Montana is #1). Washington is tied to Boeing Commercial Airplanes , earning $ 10.3 billion, is home to 1,400 aerospace-related businesses, and has the highest aerospace jobs concentration. Following are Texas, Georgia , Arizona and Colorado . In the US,

396-673: Is a large company-owned private heliport ( ICAO : KJSD , FAA LID : JSD ). Other Sikorsky facilities are in Trumbull , Shelton , and Bridgeport, Connecticut (with small company heliport ( FAA LID : CT37 )); Fort Worth, Texas ; West Palm Beach, Florida ; and Huntsville and Troy, Alabama . Sikorsky-owned subsidiaries are in Grand Prairie, Texas , and elsewhere around the world. In 2023, Sikorsky Aircraft celebrated their 100-year anniversary. In 2015, UTC considered Sikorsky to be less profitable than its other subsidiaries, and analyzed

440-532: Is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut . It was established by the Russian aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky in 1923, and was among the first companies to manufacture helicopters for civilian and military use. It also produced seaplanes for passenger transport and surface vehicles such as trains and boats. Sikorsky was owned by United Technologies Corporation until November 2015, when it

484-511: Is based. Several consolidations took place in the aerospace and defense industries over the last few decades. Airbus prominently illustrated the European airliner manufacturing consolidation in the late 1960s. Between 1988 and 2010, more than 5,452 mergers and acquisitions with a total known-value of US$ 579 billion were announced worldwide. In 1993, then United States Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and his deputy William J. Perry held

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528-417: Is the industry supporting aviation by building aircraft and manufacturing aircraft parts for their maintenance . This includes aircraft and parts used for civil aviation and military aviation . Most production is done pursuant to type certificates and Defense Standards issued by a government body. This term has been largely subsumed by the more encompassing term: " aerospace industry". In 2015

572-471: Is the successor company to numerous British aircraft manufacturers which merged throughout the second half of the 20th century. Many of these mergers followed the 1957 Defence White Paper . Marconi Electronic Systems , a subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc , was acquired by British Aerospace for US$ 12.3 billion in 1999 merger, to form BAE Systems . In 2002, when Fairchild Dornier

616-500: The Airbus A380 , less than 100 major suppliers outsource 60% of its value, even 80% on the A350 . Boeing embraced an aggressive Tier 1 model for the 787 but with its difficulties began to question why it was earning lower margins than its suppliers while it seemed to take all the risk, ensuing its 2011 Partnering for Success initiative, as Airbus initiated its own Scope+ initiative for

660-567: The Bombardier Global Express pioneered the "Tier 1" supply chain model inspired by automotive industry , with 10-12 risk-sharing limited partners funding around half of the development costs. The Embraer E-Jet followed in the late 1990s with fewer than 40 primary suppliers. Tier 1 suppliers were led by Honeywell , Safran , Goodrich Corporation and Hamilton Sundstrand . In the 2000s, Rolls-Royce reduced its supplier count after bringing in automotive supply chain executives. On

704-474: The CSeries partnership between Airbus and Bombardier Aerospace could trigger a daisy chain of reactions towards a new order. Airbus gets a new, efficient model at the lower end of the narrowbody market which provides the bulk of airliner profits and can abandon the slow selling A319 while Bombardier benefits from the growth in this expanded market even if it holds a smaller residual stake. Boeing could forge

748-703: The Department of Defense and NASA are the two biggest consumers of aerospace technology and products. The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States reported that the aerospace industry employed 444,000 wage and salary jobs in 2004, many of which were in Washington and California, this marked a steep decline from the peak years during the Reagan Administration when total employment exceeded 1,000,000 aerospace industry workers. During that period of recovery

792-739: The Elmira-Corning Regional Airport in Big Flats, New York . That same year Sikorsky purchased the PZL Mielec plant in Poland . The plant is assembling the S-70i for international customers. In February 2009, Sikorsky Global Helicopters was created as a business unit of Sikorsky Aircraft to focus on the construction and marketing of commercial helicopters. The business unit combined the main civil helicopters that were produced by Sikorsky Aircraft and

836-585: The Sikorsky Aviation Corporation with capital of $ 5,000,000, allowing the purchase of land and the building of a modern aircraft factory in Stratford. In 1929, the company moved to Stratford, Connecticut , and it became a part of United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (later United Technologies Corporation or UTC) in July of that year. In the United States, Igor Sikorsky originally concentrated on

880-850: The "Bell 646A" with rotors based on the Bell 240 UTTAS; the alternative was the smaller "Bell 646B" based on the Bell 309 KingCobra . Sikorsky proposed either a new aircraft or a modified Sikorsky S-67 Blackhawk with the rotor and gearbox from the Sikorsky S-61 . Sikorsky won the contract for two aircraft in January 1974. The modified S-67 became the S-72. The S-72 could be fitted with wings and General Electric TF34 turbofans to allow compound helicopter configurations to be experimentally investigated at speeds up to 300 knots (560 km/h; 350 mph). In addition, it could fly as

924-503: The "Last Supper" at the Pentagon with contractors executives who were told that there were twice as many military suppliers as he wanted to see: $ 55 billion in military–industry mergers took place from 1992 to 1997, leaving mainly Boeing , Lockheed Martin , Northrop Grumman and Raytheon . Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas for US$ 13.3 billion in 1996. Raytheon acquired Hughes Aircraft Company for $ 9.5 billion in 1997. BAE Systems

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968-693: The CSeries, renamed A220, and E-jet E2 are more capable than their predecessors, they moved closer to the lower end of the narrowbodies . In 2018, the four Western airframers combined into two within nine months as Boeing acquired 80% of Embraer's airliners for $ 3.8 billion on July 5. On April 3, 2020, Raytheon and United Technologies Corporation (except Otis Worldwide , leaving Rockwell Collins and engine maker Pratt and Whitney ) merged to form Raytheon Technologies Corporation , with combined sales of $ 79 billion in 2019. The most prominent unions between 1995 and 2020 include those of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas;

1012-818: The French, German and Spanish parts of EADS; and United Technologies with Rockwell Collins then Raytheon, but many mergers projects did not went through: Textron-Bombardier, EADS-BAE Systems, Hawker Beechcraft-Superior Aviation, GE-Honeywell, BAE Systems-Boeing (or Lockheed Martin), Dassault-Aerospatiale, Safran-Thales, BAE Systems-Rolls-Royce or Lockheed Martin–Northrop Grumman. The largest aerospace suppliers are United Technologies with $ 28.2 billion of revenue, followed by GE Aviation with $ 24.7 billion, Safran with $ 22.5 billion, Rolls-Royce Holdings with $ 16.9 billion, Honeywell Aerospace with $ 15.2 billion and Rockwell Collins including B/E Aerospace with $ 8.1 billion. Electric aircraft development could generate large changes for

1056-458: The Sikorsky product lines. UTC acquired Schweizer Aircraft Corp. in 2004, after which it operated as a subsidiary of Sikorsky. The product lines of the two firms were complementary, and had little overlap, as Sikorsky primarily concentrates on medium and large helicopters, while Schweizer produces small helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), gliders , and light planes. The Schweizer deal

1100-1085: The United States ( Boeing ), Montreal and Toronto in Canada ( Bombardier , Pratt & Whitney Canada ), Toulouse and Bordeaux in France ( Airbus , Dassault , ATR ), Seville in Spain and Hamburg in Germany ( Airbus ), the North-West of England and Bristol in Britain ( Airbus and AgustaWestland ), Komsomolsk-on-Amur and Irkutsk in Russia ( Sukhoi , Beriev ), Kyiv and Kharkiv in Ukraine ( Antonov ), Nagoya in Japan ( Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Aerospace and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Aerospace ), as well as São José dos Campos in Brazil where Embraer

1144-633: The X-Wing rotor system. The modified airframe was rolled out in 1986. While many of the aircraft's technical issues had been resolved, with plans for it to begin flight tests with the rotor/wing system, it never flew. Budgetary requirements led to the program being canceled in 1988. Data from Jane's all the World's Aircraft 1977–78 General characteristics Performance Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Sikorsky Aircraft Sikorsky Aircraft

1188-506: The aerospace suppliers. On 26 November 2018, United Technologies announced the completion of its Rockwell Collins acquisition, renaming systems supplier UTC Aerospace Systems as Collins Aerospace , for $ 23 billion of sales in 2017 and 70,000 employees, and $ 39.0 billion of sales in 2017 combined with engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney . Before the 1980s/1990s, aircraft and aeroengine manufacturers were vertically integrated . Then Douglas aircraft outsourced large aerostructures and

1232-700: The aircraft production was worth US$ 180.3 billion: 61% airliners , 14% business and general aviation , 12% military aircraft , 10% military rotary wing and 3% civil rotary wing; while their MRO was worth $ 135.1 Bn or $ 315.4 Bn combined. The global aerospace industry was worth $ 838.5 billion in 2017: aircraft & engine OEMs represented 28% ($ 235 Bn), civil & military MRO & upgrades 27% ($ 226 Bn), aircraft systems & component manufacturing 26% ($ 218 Bn), satellites & space 7% ($ 59 Bn), missiles & UAVs 5% ($ 42 Bn) and other activity, including flight simulators , defense electronics, public research accounted for 7% ($ 59 Bn). The Top 10 countries with

1276-428: The aircraft's ability to hover and maneuver at low speeds and to cruise at high speeds. Intended to take off vertically like a helicopter, the craft's rigid rotors could be stopped in mid-flight to act as X-shaped wings to provide additional lift during forward flight, as well as having more conventional wings. Instead of controlling lift by altering the angle of attack of its blades as more conventional helicopters do,

1320-408: The craft used compressed air fed from the engines and expelled from its blades to generate a virtual wing surface, similar to blown flaps on a conventional platform. Computerized valves made sure the compressed air came from the correct edge of the rotor, the correct edge changing as the rotor rotated. In late 1983, Sikorsky received a contract to modify one S-72 RSRA into a demonstration testbed for

1364-577: The development of multiengine landplanes and then amphibious aircraft. In the late 1930s, sales declined and United Aircraft merged his division with Vought Aircraft . He then began work on developing a practical helicopter. After first flying the VS-300 he developed the Sikorsky R-4 , the first stable, single-rotor, fully controllable helicopter to enter full-scale production in 1942, upon which most subsequent helicopters were based. Sikorsky Aircraft remains

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1408-502: The first human-powered helicopter flight (60-second duration, a height of 3 meters, and staying within an area of 10 x 10 m) and soon increased prize money to US$ 25,000. In 2010, Sikorsky Aircraft pledged to increase the prize sponsorship to US$ 250,000. Canadian engineers Dr. Todd Reichert and Cameron Robertson developed the world's largest human-powered helicopter with a team from the University of Toronto . The first flight of AeroVelo Atlas

1452-513: The global aerospace industry and research effort. In Russia , large aerospace companies like Oboronprom and the United Aircraft Corporation (encompassing Mikoyan , Sukhoi , Ilyushin , Tupolev , Yakovlev , and Irkut , which includes Beriev ) are among the major global players in this industry. Important locations of the civil aerospace industry worldwide include Seattle , Wichita, Kansas , Dayton, Ohio and St. Louis in

1496-680: The helicopter business of Schweizer Aircraft that Sikorsky had acquired in 2004. It was based at Coatesville, Pennsylvania until 2022. In 2011, Sikorsky laid off 400 workers at the Hawk Works plant, and later in 2012 the remaining 570 workers and closed all Sikorsky facilities in Chemung County; moving the military completion work to their West Palm Beach, Florida, facility. The commercial products had already been moved to their Coatesville, Pennsylvania facility. Sikorsky's main plant and administrative offices are located in Stratford, Connecticut, as

1540-623: The largest industrial bases in 2017 were the United States with $ 408.4 billion (representing 49% of the whole), followed by France with $ 69 billion (8.2%), then China with $ 61.2 billion (7.3%), the United Kingdom with $ 48.8 billion (5.8%), Germany with $ 46.2 billion (5.5%), Russia with $ 27.1 billion (3.2%), Canada with $ 24 billion (2.9%), Japan with $ 21 billion (2.5%), Spain with $ 14 billion (1.7%) and India with $ 11 billion (1.3%). These ten countries represent $ 731 billion or 87.2% of

1584-449: The physical craft had only minor variations in equipment. In some cases, the aircraft were returned to Sikorsky or to another manufacturer and additionally modified, resulting in still further variants on the same basic model number. Comparable major helicopter manufacturers : 41°15′0″N 73°5′50″W  /  41.25000°N 73.09722°W  / 41.25000; -73.09722 Aircraft manufacturer The aircraft industry

1628-491: The vertical drag of the airframe. In 1981, NASA and the US Army solicited proposals for fitting a four-bladed main rotor to the RSRA. Sikorsky proposed fitting a UH-60A main rotor to the RSRA in their proposal, while Hughes Helicopters proposed fitting a YAH-64A main rotor, and Boeing Vertol proposed fitting a YUH-61A or BV-347 main rotor. In the end, this program did not proceed. The X-Wing Circulation Control Rotor Concept

1672-459: The whole industry. In 2018, the new commercial aircraft value is projected for $ 270.4 billion while business aircraft will amount for $ 18 billion and civil helicopters for $ 4 billion. In September 2018, PwC ranked aerospace manufacturing attractiveness: the most attractive country was the United States , with $ 240 billion in sales in 2017, due to the sheer size of the industry (#1) and educated workforce (#1), low geopolitical risk (#4, #1

1716-500: Was bankrupt , Airbus, Boeing or Bombardier declined to take the 728JET /928JET large regional jet program as mainline and regional aircraft manufacturers were split and Airbus was digesting its ill-fated Fokker acquisition a decade earlier. On September 4, 2017, United Technologies acquired Rockwell Collins in cash and stock for $ 23 billion, $ 30 billion including Rockwell Collins' net debt, for $ 500+ million of synergies expected by year four. The Oct. 16, 2017 announcement of

1760-479: Was a pure research aircraft developed to fill the void between design analysis, wind tunnel testing, and flight results of rotor aircraft. The joint NASA/Army project began in December 1970, first flight on October 12, 1976, with the first of two aircraft arriving from Sikorsky to NASA on February 11, 1979. One notable test performed with the RSRA was the use of the main and tail rotor load measurement system to determine

1804-526: Was achieved in August 2012, the 64-second, 3.3-m-flight that won the prize on June 13, 2013. Sikorsky designates nearly all of its models with S-numbers; numbers S-1 through S-27 were designed by Igor Sikorsky before he left the Russian Empire. Later models, especially helicopters, received multiple designations by the military services using them, often depending on purpose (UH, SH, and MH for instance), even if

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1848-589: Was developed in the mid-1970s by the David W. Taylor Naval Ship Research and Development Center under DARPA funding. In October 1976, Lockheed Corporation won a DARPA contract to develop a large-scale rotor to test the concept. The X-Wing was conceived to complement rather than replace helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. The X-Wing was intended to be used in roles such as air-to-air and air-to-ground operations, as well as airborne early warning, search and rescue and anti-submarine warfare. These roles could take advantage of

1892-523: Was signed on August 26, 2004, exactly one week after the death of Paul Schweizer , the company's founder and majority owner. In late 2005, Sikorsky completed the purchase of Keystone Helicopter Corporation, located in Coatesville, Pennsylvania . Keystone had been maintaining and completing Sikorsky S-76 and S-92 helicopters prior to the sale. In 2007, Sikorsky opened the Hawk Works, a Rapid Prototyping and Military Derivatives Completion Center located west of

1936-632: Was sold to Lockheed Martin . On March 5, 1923, the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation was founded near Roosevelt Field , New York, by Igor Sikorsky , an immigrant to the United States who was born in Kyiv , Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire ). In 1925, the company name was changed to Sikorsky Manufacturing Company . After the success of the S-38 , the company was reorganized as

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