AFWERX funding advances Piasecki ARES program

Piasecki Aircraft Corp. (Essington, Pa., U.S.) has been awarded a $37 million multiyear contract by AFWERX, the U.S. Air Force innovation arm, to demonstrate its aerial reconfigurable embedded system (ARES) tilt-duct vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial system (UAS). Awarded in conjunction with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) as part of its Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) program, the contract also includes demonstration of hydrogen fuel cell propulsion technologies for VTOL and other aviation applications.

Part of the AFRL’s strategic funding increase program, the contract award “will rapidly expand our ability to deliver these radically new vehicles to customers and partners across the military and commercial sectors,” CEO John Piasecki says, as reported by FlightGlobal.com.

The ARES rotorcraft is a “modular, multimission VTOL aircraft that can be operated as an unmanned platform, or with an optional manned flight module,” says Vertical Magazine, capable of performing surveillance, communications, command and control, and logistics support over extended distances and in complex terrain. The demonstration vehicle was originally produced in partnership with Lockheed Martin (Bethesda, Md., U.S.) with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Per the contract, zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell propulsion technology developed for VTOLs will also be applied to Piasecki’s upcoming PA-890 compound helicopter. The company is working with ZeroAvia (Hollister, Calif., U.S.) to develop and implement its high-temperature proton exchange membrane (HTPEM) hydrogen fuel cells.

Piasecki acquired former Lockheed Sikorsky’s 219,000-square-foot facility Coatesville, Pennsylvania, facility earlier this year to serve as a location for the company’s VTOL and UAS R&D.