The merger of Lockheed Martin’s technical knowledge combined with the experienced engineers and existing patents of Sikorsky could spell a really bright future for autonomous flight.

In October, Sikorsky managed to pass a critical test when its self-piloting Black Hawk helicopter demonstrated its autonomous flight capabilities by successfully depositing cargo into a simulated disaster area before returning home. Several years prior, Lockheed’s autonomous K-MAX helicopter was sent out to Afghanistan with the Marine Corps and successfully piloted itself over treacherous terrain, hauling close to 4.5 million pounds of supplies for ground troops over three years.

Now that the two leaders of autonomous flight technology have merged into one, Lockheed did not just become the largest producer of military helicopters, but also the maker of most sophisticated autonomous helicopters in the world. With a sizable Sikorsky assembly plant in Coatesville, Chester County could play an important role in the future of autonomous aviation. 

While for now, this does not translate into a huge monetary gain for the company. That may change very soon as Lockheed and Sikorsky work on transforming airborne logistics for both industry and the U.S. military.

“Lockheed and Sikorsky are both leaders in these technologies,” says Jay McConville, Lockheed’s Director of Business Development for Unmanned Integrated Systems. “Now that we are one company we’re going to build on that, and I think we’ll be able to bring solutions to our customers in a very diverse mission set.”

The acquisition has ensured that Lockheed will be first in line for any future Pentagon contracts that require autonomous cargo-hauling, while their future potential customers also include oil and gas companies, organizations that work in humanitarian relief. The U.S. Department of the Interior is also considering robotic helicopters for numerous civilian and commercial roles over the next several years.

Chomping at the bit from the sidelines is the ever growing need for “delivery drones” from companies such as Amazon and Google as they would like a way to be able to easily deliver small packages to customers’ doorsteps. While this technology is nowhere near there yet, the principal goal of improved automated aerial logistics and the fundamental technologies are mostly the same.

“Google, Amazon, these smaller services that want to do autonomous delivery, it’s not a huge stretch,” says Army Chief Roboticist, Dr. Robert Sadowski of the U.S. Army’s TARDEC. “Some of these technologies will help us get there. Are we there yet? No. But we’re getting closer.”