Cassidian acquired SURVEY Copter
Cassidian has acquired the french company
SURVEY Copter to strengthen its UAV segment.
Especially within the civil and military Mini UAV applications
Cassidian plans to launch a new industrial field, including VTOL
UAV programs. Aim of these activities is an improved matching
with the growing global demand in both sectors. Following the
general trend of robotics and Cassidian´s long term vision, this
acquisition should enhance the commercial opportunities e.g.
within the identified markets in India (see below) or in the
Middle-East.
Dr. Stefan Zoller, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cassidian,
said: "With this acquisition, Cassidian continues to expand its
UAV capabilities and its global market approach, targeting new
businesses in the small UAV segment."
Sources:
Cassidian, WSJ, sUAV News, Unmanned
Tags:
Cassidian, SURVEY Copter, VTOL UAV, India
India´s needs for long-endurance VTOL
UAVs
This month India has realeased a request for
information (RFI) for a small-sized vertical take-off and landing
unmanned air vehicle.
Due to this request of the Indian air force, a battery- or fuel-
driven VTOL UAV with less than 22 lbs (10 kg) and an endurance
of more than 60 min is required. Planned payloads are cameras,
forward-looking infrared and laser spotters and rangefinders.
This small UAV should perform intelligence, search and
reconnaissance missions and should be capable of hovering and
operating in urban environments.
At present there are only a few small VTOL UAV-concepts
available at the market. According to this RFI the Syrphus VTOL
UAV-Design (35 in-variant) offers the perfect battery-driven
platform with an endurance of more than 70 min in horizontal
flight or at least 20 min in hovering.
Tags:
RFI, India, VTOL UAV
Launch of the hybrid VTOL UAV project
In a few months this domain will host the website of
the new Patent Pending vertical take-off & landing
(VTOL)-concept Syrphus for Small UAV(SUAV) applications.
This groundbreaking airframe design has never been presented
before and is unique in appearance. It stands out for its economic
flight performance, the aerodynamic stability comparing to
helicopter-like systems and the sophisticated simplicity and
therefore robustness.
Due to these characteristics it demonstrates the perfect VTUAV
platform (´T´ stands for ´Tactical´). For example, for use within a
submarine´s mast neither a folding nor a catapult mechanism is
necessary or it can be launched by mounted units at velocities
from 0 to 80 km/h. But it is also scaleable from 30 cm (maybe
smaller) to 200 cm in width.
"We are estimating flight performance data similar to current and
successful AeroVironment RQ-11 "Raven" or EMT "Aladin" for
the 60 cm hand-launched variant of Syrphus but with additional
hands-free VTOL capability combined with hover & stare
functionality." said inventor Andreas Voss "The first prototype
was very successful and very promising. With the upcoming
prototypes in the following months we will get the real specs of
the Syrphus design. We are eager to find a licensee to start with
the next investigations."
...Please, stay tuned!
Tags:
VTOL UAV, Patent, UAV airframe, UAV family
Patent Application “Hybrid VTOL UAV”
It´s done! The Patent Application is submitted to the
intellectual property authority.
Tags:
Patent, Application, VTOL configuration
Hoverfly “syrphus ribesii”
Eponym for this VTOL UAV (VUAV) or rather
VTOL Tactical UAV (VTUAV) family is a genus of
the hoverfly family called Syrphidae. The hoverflies impress us
by their elegant and very stable "Hover and Stare" flight during
summer nearly all over the world and are welcome to many
gardeners due to the fact that these are useful insects.
Tags:
Eponym, Hoverfly, syrphus ribesii
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