Spirit AeroSystems’ Belfast team are to work on the development of a vertical takeoff aircraft capable of flying three times faster than a helicopter.
Working alongside the aerospace company’s Scotland operations, it will help design Skyworks VertiJet - a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), high-speed and long-range aircraft known as a gyrodyne which has the potential of flying at 400 miles an hour.
The announcement comes after Spirit signed a memorandum of understanding with Skyworks Aeronautics to support the US company’s defence and commercial platforms in the UK and Europe. Skyworks is an expert on gyronautics – which involves the use of propellers to achieve lift – and has been developing manned and unmanned vertical lift gyroplane technologies for more than two decades.
