After several years of work, Sikorsky, owned by Lockheed Martin, has finally developed and proven the operability of a new type of aircraft, the Rotor Blown Wing. Its main feature is the ability to fly horizontally, like an airplane, and also land and take off vertically without any mechanical changes to the configuration itself.
That is, unlike tiltrotor aircraft, it does not need to rotate the propellers, an action that ordinarily requires a very complex torque transmission. According to Sikorsky, in January 2025, the new aircraft made 40 takeoffs and landings and 30 transitions between two flight modes, and also reached a cruising speed of 160 km/h.
The 52 kg aerial vehicle is a drone with a wingspan of about 3 meters, with two electric motors. It is essentially a flying wing with a relatively thick profile, with a central nacelle and small vertical stabilizers. In vertical position, it is unclear if it has tandem rotor configuration, as in the famous CH-47 Chinook, or transverse one, as in the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor.
Despite the seeming simplicity of the idea, there’s the complexity of controlling the aircraft during the transition lying behind it. Sikorsky’s been known to develop the concept since 2022, but a real breakthrough was achieved only recently, the company itself reported. Understanding the complexity of this project, the company opted out of the Future Vertical Lift competition to replace the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter where the Defiant X pusher proposal lost to Bell’s V-280 Valor tiltrotor.
Most importantly, the results prove that the design is scalable and can be implemented on a hybrid-electric power plant. The video suggests the possibility of creating UAVs that can transport goods and strike the enemy.
In addition to drones, the manufacturer plans to use this design for a prototype of a manned aircraft called HEX — Hybrid-electric demonstrator. This project combines the Rotor Blown Wing with a traditional fuselage, which is more convenient for passenger and cargo transportation and generally manned aviation.
The HEX, with a maximum take-off weight of 4 tons, will use a hybrid power plant with a total capacity of 1.2 MW, or 600 kW per engine. The estimated flight range of such aircraft should be over 900 km. A prototype is scheduled to make its first hover by 2027.
