The U.S. Army and Marine Corps are moving beyond experimenting with the K-MAX unmanned cargo helicopter and are taking steps to add the aircraft to their fleets, industry officials said last Thursday at the Paris Air Show. Continue reading
Category Archives: VTOL
Scientists Hunt for Pigmy Rabbit Habitat – with Military-Style UAS
Scientists in Idaho will be flying military-style unmanned aircraft over the state’s sagebrush sea, not in a bid to find terrorists but to help locate the best habitat for one of West’s smallest mammals, the pygmy rabbit.
Cassidian Presents Tanan 300 UAS at Paris Air Show
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Cassidian will present its TANAN 300 new-generation compact VTOL Tactical UAS (Vertical Take-Off and Landing Tactical Unmanned Aerial System) for maritime and land missions at Le Bourget this week. Continue reading
Schiebel Camcopter S-100 – Growing Experience at Sea Onboard the OPV l´Adroit
Since the OPV (Offshore Patrol Vessel) L ́Adroit was officially made available to the French Navy in October 2011, the Schiebel CAMCOPTER S-100 Unmanned Air System (UAS) was able to repeatedly prove its highly efficient maritime capability. Continue reading
Yo! Sushi QuadCopters Deliver Sushi in the Streets
CNN’s Jim Boulden talks to Robin Rowland, CEO of Yo! Sushi in the UK about the company’s experiments with QuadCopters for serving sushi. Continue reading
US Navy’s New, Bigger Fire Scout To Fly in Autumn
There’s a new Fire Scout in the pipeline — bigger, faster, longer legs, more muscle. It’s still being assembled and won’t fly until later this year, but it’s headed for the fleet as soon as late 2014. And it could fundamentally change some of the parameters expected of the US Navy’s seagoing unmanned helicopter programme. Continue reading
Solar-Powered OctoCopter
Ecilop Solar (Ecilop-8) is controlled as a quad-copter, 8 rotors are connected pair-wise. There is no onboard battery. To configure controllers inside a building, the user connects an external battery. To restart the controller in sunlight, the user bridges the power leads. The vehicle remains airborne because of ground effect and automatically maintains a horizontal attitude. Continue reading
Eurocopter X3 Hybrid Helicopter Creates New Speed Record at 263 knots – 487 km/hr
The Eurocopter X3 hybrid helicopter has opened the frontiers of aviation by attaining a speed milestone of 255 knots (472 km/hr) in level flight on June 7. Several days before this accomplishment, the X3 reached a speed of 263 knots (487 km/hr) during a descent. With these two successes, the X3 surpasses the unofficial speed record for a helicopter. Continue reading