“Ma Kesi Space-time: Sauckski test-flies vertical takeoff and landing rotorcraft”

Lockheed Martin’s subsidiary, Sikorsky, recently announced that the concept aircraft of a new type of unmanned aerial vehicle, the rotary-wing blow-wing drone, has completed its first round of flight tests, verifying the feasibility of its design. Unlike existing multi-rotor and vertical take-off drones, this rotary-wing blow-wing aircraft adopts a rotor design similar to that of the Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. It is expected to produce larger prototype machines in the future to expand its military applications and vie for support from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

DARPA’s supplementary project is a small vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicle program, officially named the Advanced Aircraft Unaided Launch and Recovery Project, which began in September 2022. Its main goal is to replace the Navy’s current use of the RQ-21 drone. The first round selected 6 manufacturers to compete in a preliminary design review, with experimental flights scheduled for early 2026.

The DARPA project requires the unmanned aircraft to have a total weight of less than 150 kilograms, aiming for under 114 kilograms, an effective payload of 27 kilograms, a 16-hour endurance, and operability within a range of 185 kilometers from the ship. This is three times the mission capability of other unmanned helicopters with similar payloads. It also requires shipboard personnel to be able to operate without any infrastructure, with fewer and less trained personnel even successfully operating the aircraft.

The RQ-21 drone that the supplementary project aims to replace is a fixed-wing aircraft with a total weight of 61 kilograms, an effective payload of 18 kilograms, using catapult launch and arrest recovery methods, requiring 9 personnel to operate and utilizing a military ship’s flight deck, disrupting operations of other aircraft.

The vertical take-off and landing unmanned aircraft born from this supplementary project may also expand into the Army, Marine Corps, and other units in the future to strengthen their battlefield situational awareness and reconnaissance capabilities.

Sikorsky’s involvement in the supplementary project with the rotary-wing blow-wing unmanned aircraft, also known as the rotor-augmented aircraft wing drone, is electrically powered with a wingspan of about 10 feet (approximately 3.13 meters) and weighs 115 pounds (about 52 kilograms). It carries two electric motors and can transition flight modes after vertical take-off. In early January 2025, Sikorsky completed the transitional flight of the rotary-wing blow-wing electric test aircraft, successfully demonstrating vertical take-off transitioning to horizontal forward flight.

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