Proving to be underpowered, the development of the S-60 led to the larger, turbine-engined Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe military transport helicopter, and its civil S-64 Skycrane variant, which were already on the drawing board by the time the sole example of the S-60 crashed on 3 April 1961.

[1] Like the S-56/H-37 it was powered by two Wasp radial piston engines, but it had a radically different fuselage; rather than a fixed cabin it only had a cockpit and an open area in which pods with different tasks could be carried.

[2][3] The fuselage of the S-60 was a simple "pod-and-boom" design with the engines mounted in side pods and long tailwheel-style landing gear that allowed it to straddle cargoes.

The crew cabin was mounted in the nose, with aft-mounted controls for the co-pilot to use during loading and unloading operations.

[2][3] Igor Sikorsky was fully involved in the development of the prototype S-60, from the initial design through flight testing.