Sikorsky Innovations names 9th Entrepreneurial Challenge awardees

Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company, announced Continuous Composites as the winner of the 9th Entrepreneurial Challenge. The Challenge, led by Sikorsky Innovations, is designed to accelerate innovators and disruptive technology concepts with applications to aerospace.

“This year we received the most first round applications ever,” said Chris Van Buiten, vice president of Sikorsky Innovations. “We are thrilled to continue to work with a variety of entrepreneurs and small businesses to explore new technology and concepts.”

Continuous Composites is advancing its Continuous Fiber 3D Printing (CF3D) technology in the defense and aerospace sectors for the next generation of composites with deeply embedded functional microstructures.

“This recognition is a great follow-on to our recently announced joint development agreement with Arkema Group as we build the base for future revenue streams and advance our strategic initiatives,” said Tyler Alvardo, CEO of Continuous Composites. “Those initiatives include applying CF3D to print carbon-bonded-carbon composites used in hypersonic applications where both extremely high heat and strength are required. We are continuing to establish strategic partnerships as we move toward the anticipated commercialization of our technology in 2021.”

Sikorsky Innovations also awarded two special recognition awardees: Vita Inclinata and Ubisense. Vita Inclinata is developing an autonomous, unmanned suspended load stability system (LSS) for integration into rotary wing suspended load operations. Ubisense has a SmartSpace platform that brings visibility of the physical world to planning management and control systems This is done by creating a real-time digital twin of complex process flows which is built on dynamic tracking of the location, motion, and interactions of key assets.

Three companies were also chosen for an honorable mention award: Climacell, Magnetic 3D, and Vartega.

Sikorsky is introducing a new set of focus areas including: low noise aircraft enabling technologies, technologies that enhance human-machine taming, advanced validation and verification for non-deterministic software and wireless sensor network cyber resilience solutions. These focus areas are part of the newly formed Entrepreneurial Network. Evolving from previous initiatives, the network will continue to enable interactions between Sikorsky and a wide variety of innovators.