The US Navy's vertical take-off and landing unmanned air vehicle (VTOL UAV) competition includes a bid from a Northrop Grumman Ryan Aeronautical Centre-led team which utilises a modified Schweizer Aircraft Model 330turbine-powered light helicopter.
The modified rotorcraft, which has successfully completed a 41-mission, 38h manned flight test programme at Schweizer's Elmira, New York, facility, has been shipped to San Diego. Over the next two months it will undergo autonomous land-based UAV demonstration flights.
The trials will be completed just prior to when the USN expects to select the winner of the VTOL UAV contest,
The Northrop Grumman team also includes: Lockheed Martin Federal Systems (shipboard integration); L-3 Communications (communications gear); IAI Tamam (the MOSP multi-mission optronic stabilised payload); Sierra Nevada (UAV common automated recovery system); and Raytheon (tactical control station).
The rotorcraft fuselage has been streamlined to improve air speed, and it carries additional fuel to meet endurance requirements.
Avionics software architecture heavily borrows from Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk UAV programme.
Source: Flight International
