Austrian company Aerie has announced its first VTOL Long Endurance unmanned aircraft system, the Swift. The Company intends to fill the gap in the market for Long Endurance VTOL intelligent Aircraft, starting with the Swift which has an endurance of 24 hours. “We have studied the market for years. There is a need for VTOL aircraft with long endurance in the UAS market. Aerie has developed its own hybrid technology for that need and is now getting into this market” says Johannes Reiter, CEO of the company. “We come from aviation and know what’s going on”.
The team has experience in certification of General Aviation Aircraft and propulsion systems. It has developed a high value hybrid combination between the most efficient vertical aircraft, the helicopter, with the most efficient cruise configuration, a high wing span aircraft, like a high altitude fixed wing observer.
Aerie uses the same wings for hover and flight. This makes the Swift a very light weight VTOL with full abilities in both operation modes (hover and cruise).
The company plans to follow the swift with the “Dipteron”, a advanced version with more carrying capabilities, and the “Kestrel”, a complete customised operation system which will be available within the next 3 years.
The company’s web-site is still ‘under construction’, but does feature a short video of the Swift at the beginning of an outdoor trial.
The team is also experienced in servicing and certification of airborne observation systems, and has a partner for processing airborne complex data.
More information on the company’s products can be seen here: Aerie_Data_Sheet
Source: Press Release