Robinson Unveils Collaborative Autonomous R66 TURBINETRUCK Cargo Helicopter

Robinson Helicopter Company and Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, have announced the development of the R66 TURBINETRUCK, an autonomous cargo helicopter designed to serve both civil and military operators.

The aircraft is the result of a collaborative agreement that pairs Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy system with a new cargo-specific UAS helicopter from Robinson Unmanned. This platform is the 21st aircraft to be enabled by the MATRIX system, which has accumulated over 1,000 flight hours across various aircraft types, ranging from small drones to large strategic airlift planes.

Designed specifically for internal and external cargo operations, the TURBINETRUCK lacks a traditional cockpit or crew stations. Instead, it features a high-volume fuselage with a dedicated cargo floor and a nose-mounted clamshell door intended to accelerate the loading of palletized freight. The airframe is built for cost-effectiveness and rapid reconfiguration, utilizing a modular open architecture that allows operators to swap mission software based on specific requirements.

Rich Benton, vice president and general manager of Sikorsky, commented, “With every new platform we welcome into the MATRIX family, we widen the network of uncrewed systems to serve a variety of civil and military missions. We view the U-Hawk and R66 TURBINETRUCK as complementary bookends that meet emerging customer needs across defense and commercial segments, delivering seamless capability wherever the mission demands. Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy suite is rapidly becoming the industry standard for safe, reliable and repeatable autonomy for those missions.”

The integration of the MATRIX suite simplifies unmanned operations by allowing an operator to input goals via a tablet. Once the mission is set, the system automatically generates a flight plan, utilizing an array of cameras, sensors, and algorithms to navigate the aircraft to its destination. This technology is intended to ensure mission effectiveness and safety in environments ranging from remote-site resupply to disaster relief and contested logistics.

David Smith, president and CEO of Robinson Helicopter Company, added, “This collaboration with Sikorsky allows us to extend the reach of the R66 into new mission-sets, while reinforcing our long-term commitment to building scalable, integrated unmanned systems. We’ve taken years of flight-proven maturity and together we have optimized it for the future of autonomy. The R66 TURBINETRUCK offers an affordable and attritable custom cargo architecture designed for one thing: getting critical assets into the field autonomously and reliably.”

By utilizing a proven commercial airframe, the TURBINETRUCK aims to provide a low acquisition cost and easily replaceable components. This approach is intended to reduce the total cost of ownership and operational risk for organizations requiring a flexible, autonomous utility platform.