Sikorsky Aircraft

Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation

Company type	Manufacturer
Industry	Aviation
Founded	1925
Founder	Igor Sikorsky
Headquarters	Stratford, Connecticut , United States
Key people	Dan Schultz (president, 2015)
Number of employees	15,975 (2014)
Parent	Lockheed Martin
Subsidiaries	Schweizer Aircraft PZL Mielec
Website	Sikorsky.com

The Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. It was established by Igor Sikorsky in 1925 and was among the first companies to manufacture helicopters for civilian and military use.

Previously owned by United Technologies Corporation (UTC), in November 2015 Sikorsky was sold to Lockheed Martin.

History

Sikorsky was founded in 1925 by aircraft engineer Igor Sikorsky, an American immigrant who was born in Kiev. The company, named "Sikorsky Manufacturing Company", began aircraft production in Roosevelt, New York, that year. In 1929 the company moved to Stratford, Connecticut. It became a part of United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (now United Technologies Corporation) in July of that year.

Advertisement for Sikorsky S-42 Clipper flying boat from 1937

In the United States, Igor Sikorsky originally concentrated on the development of multi-engined landplanes and then amphibious aircraft. In the late 1930s, sales declined and United Aircraft merged his division with Vought Aircraft. He took this opportunity to begin 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 large full-scale production in 1942, upon which the majority of subsequent helicopters were based (though Sikorsky did not invent the helicopter itself).

Sikorsky Aircraft remains one of the leading helicopter manufacturers, producing such well-known models as the UH-60 Black Hawk and SH-60 Seahawk, as well as experimental types like the Sikorsky S-72 X-Wing. It is a leading defense contractor. Sikorsky has supplied the Presidential helicopter since 1957. Sikorsky's VH-3 and VH-60 currently perform this role.

The company acquired Helicopter Support Inc. (HSI) in 1998. HSI handles non-U.S. government after-market support for parts and repair for the Sikorsky product lines.

United Technologies Corporation (UTC) acquired Schweizer Aircraft Corp. in 2004, which now operates as a subsidiary of Sikorsky. The product lines of the two firms are complementary, and have very little overlap, as Sikorsky primarily concentrates on medium and large helicopters, while Schweizer produces small helicopters, UAVs, gliders, and light planes. The Schweizer deal 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 (RPMDCC) located west of 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 combines the main civil helicopters that were produced by Sikorsky Aircraft and the helicopter business of Schweizer Aircraft that Sikorsky has acquired in 2004. It is based at Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

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. Other Sikorsky facilities are in Trumbull, Shelton, and Bridgeport, Connecticut; Fort Worth, Texas; West Palm Beach, Florida; and Huntsville, and Troy, Alabama. Other Sikorsky-owned subsidiaries are in Coatesville, Pennsylvania; and Grand Prairie, Texas; among others around the world.

In 2015, UTC considered Sikorsky to be less profitable than its other subsidiaries, and analyzed 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. Final approval (from the Chinese government) came in November 2015. The sale was completed on November 6, 2015.

Jeffrey Pino, a former President of the company, was killed in a plane crash in February 2016.

Products

Sikorsky designates nearly all of its models with S-numbers; numbers S-1 through S-20 were designed by Igor Sikorsky in Russia (see Igor Sikorsky). 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 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.

Airplanes

• Sikorsky S-29-A: twin-engine cargo biplane. First Sikorsky built in the U.S. (1924)
• Sikorsky S-30: twin-engine, never built. (1925)
• Sikorsky S-31: single-engine biplane (1925)
• Sikorsky S-32: single-engine two-passenger biplane (1926)
• Sikorsky S-33: "Messenger" single-engine biplane (1925)
• Sikorsky S-34: twin-engine flying boat prototype. (1927)
• Sikorsky S-35: three-engine biplane prototype (1926)
• Sikorsky S-36: eight-seat two-engine flying boat "Amphibion" (1927)
• Sikorsky S-37: "Guardian" eight-seat two-engine biplane (1927)
• Sikorsky S-38: eight-seat two-engine boat flying boat (USN PS) (1928–1933)
  • Sikorsky RS: transport flying boat (USN RS)
• Sikorsky S-39: five-seat single-engine variant of S-38 (1929–1932)
• Sikorsky S-40: "Flying Forest" four-engine 28-passenger flying boat (1931)
• Sikorsky S-41: twin-engine flying boat (1931) (USN RS-1)
• Sikorsky S-42: "Clipper" four-engine flying boat (1934–1935)
• Sikorsky S-43: "Baby Clipper" twin-engine amphibious flying boat (1935–1937) (Army OA-1, USN JRS-1)
• Sikorsky VS-44: "Excalibur" four-engine flying boat (1937)
• Sikorsky S-45: six-engine flying boat (for Pan Am). Never built (1938)

Helicopters

• VS-300/S-46 (1939)
• Sikorsky S-47 (R-4): world's first production helicopter. (1940)
• Sikorsky S-48 (R-5/H-5): helicopter designed with higher load, endurance, speed, and service ceiling than the R-4 (1943)
• Sikorsky S-49 (R-6): improved R-4 with new fuselage
• Sikorsky S-51: larger, civil H-5. World's second certified commercial helicopter (1946)
• Sikorsky S-52 (H-18/HO5S): helicopter with all-metal rotors (1947)
• Sikorsky S-53 (XHJS-1) naval utility helicopter (1947)
• Sikorsky S-55: ten passenger utility helicopter, H-19 Chickasaw (1949)
• Sikorsky S-56: twin-engined helicopter, H-37A Mojave (1953)
• Sikorsky S-58 (H-34 Choctaw): eighteen passenger utility helicopter, larger more advanced than the S-55. Also available in ASW, VIP versions (1954)
• Sikorsky S-59 (XH-39): 2 H-18s converted to use one turboshaft engine (1953)
• Sikorsky S-60: prototype "flying crane" helicopter, crashed 1961 (1959)
• Sikorsky S-61: medium-lift transport/airliner helicopter (1959)
  • Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King: ASW, SAR or transport helicopter (1959)
  • Sikorsky CH-124 Sea King: export version of the SH-3 Sea King for the Canadian Armed Forces (1963)
  • Sikorsky S-61R: redesigned S-61 with rear cargo ramp; CH-3, HH-3 "Jolly Green Giant", and HH-3F Pelican (1963)
• Sikorsky S-62: HH-52 Seaguard amphibious helicopter (1958)
• Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane: "flying crane" helicopter (1962)
  • Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe: transport helicopter for the US Army (1962)
• Sikorsky S-65, CH-53 Sea Stallion: medium/heavy lift transport helicopter (1964)
  • Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion: (1974)
  • Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion:
  • Sikorsky MH-53: long-range search and rescue helicopter (1967)
• Sikorsky S-66 AAFSS competitor, S-67 predecessor
• Sikorsky S-67 Blackhawk: prototype attack helicopter (1970)
• Sikorsky S-68: entry for the US Army Armored Aerial Reconnaissance Vehicle program.
• Sikorsky S-69: prototype with contra-rotating co-axial rotors, twin conventional tail (1973)
• Sikorsky S-70: (1974)
  • Sikorsky HH-60 Jayhawk
  • Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk
  • Sikorsky SH-60 Sea Hawk
  • Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk
  • List of Sikorsky S-70 Models
• Sikorsky S-71: entry for the US Army Advanced Attack Helicopter program. Designed using dynamic components from the S-70.
• Sikorsky S-72: rotor systems research for NASA (1975)
• Sikorsky S-73: entry for the US Army HLH program.
• Sikorsky S-74: original designation of the Sikorsky S-76.
• Sikorsky S-75: advanced Composite Airframe Program (ACAP) all-composite proof of concept helicopter (1984)
• Sikorsky S-76: 14-seat commercial (1977)
• Sikorsky S-80: export version of the CH-53E/MH-53E Super Stallion heavy lift helicopter (1974)
• Sikorsky S-92 and military H-92 Superhawk (1995)
  • CH-148 Cyclone
• Sikorsky S-97 Raider: proposed design for the United States Army Armed Aerial Scout program. (2010)
• Sikorsky S-300C (1964)
  • Sikorsky Firefly
• Sikorsky S-333 (1992)
• Sikorsky S-434 (2008)
• Sikorsky X2: concept demonstrator with twin, contra-rotating rotors and a pusher prop. (2008)

Other aircraft

• Sikorsky XBLR-3: Bomber aircraft (1935-1936)
• Sikorsky XSS: Naval scout flying-boat (1933)
• Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche
• Sikorsky S-57/XV-2: Supersonic convertiplane with single blade retractable rotor. Never built.
• Sikorsky Cypher: Doughnut-shaped UAV (1992)
• Sikorsky Cypher II: development of the Cypher (2001)
• Vertical Take-Off and Landing Experimental Aircraft - design and development of a hybrid VTOL/Conventional design

Other products

• UAC TurboTrain (1968)
• Sikorsky ASPB Assault Support Patrol Boat (1969)

Gallery

• 
  H-34 Choctaw
• 
  Canadian CH-124 Sea King
• 
  CH-54 Tarhe
• 
  CH-53E Super Stallion
• 
  MH-53J Pave Low III
• 
  UH-60 Black Hawk

See also

• Igor Sikorsky

References

Bibliography

• Spenser, Jay P. "Sikorsky". Whirlybirds, A History of the U.S. Helicopter Pioneers. University of Washington Press, 1998. ISBN 0-295-97699-3.

External links

• Sikorsky homepage
• Sikorsky Timeline at the Helicopter History Site
• Sikorsky Archives site
• "Patents owned by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation". US Patent & Trademark Office. Retrieved December 6, 2005.