Perspectives on Innovation

Chris Van Buiten - Chris is Sikorsky's Chief of Technology and Innovation. He has 19 years of experience incubating and defining new rotorcraft solutions. He is a Technical Fellow for Advanced System Design and a specialist in the front end of the product cycle, in which customer needs are understood and the initial product definition replaces the blank sheet of paper. Chris has been an integral part of this process on key efforts that are fundamental to Sikorsky's growing business, such as the UH-60M, the S-92^® and the CH-53K helicopters. He is a patent holder, and has published and presented numerous papers. He has an aerospace engineering degree from University of Maryland and a Masters in System Design and Management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Chris on the notion of Innovation - Innovation is broader than technology. To me innovation means doing things differently. We can innovate in a number of dimensions in addition to those which are technical. The new multi-function cell phones are clearly innovative due to the integration of technology, information access, user interface, business partnerships and marketing. Innovation can come from new combinations of technologies applied to new problems. The success of our next new product will demand innovation in many dimensions to differentiate it from everything else, to develop it around the world and to design, test and certify it in half the time it has taken in the past.

Chris on new technologies - I remain passionate about wireless technology as a means to improve our products and innovate the way we test, build and support them. The amount of wire being installed on a typical aircraft has nearly tripled over the past 15 years with the introduction of glass cockpits, new sensors, Health and Usage Monitoring, and active vibration control. Wireless used in combination with several other technologies offer the potential of reversing the wire growth trend.