Tad McGeer, an unmanned aircraft pioneer who designed the Aerosonde and ScanEagle, has now unveiled a vertical take-off and landing, long-endurance aircraft in the same size class called Flexrotor.
The 19kg (42lb) Flexrotor is designed to challenge the ScanEagle for the commercial and military surveillance markets, says McGeer, president of Washington-based start-up Aerovel. McGeer's goal is to dramatically reduce the cost of long-endurance aircraft, which he believes remains uncompetitive with even short-range manned aircraft for the same missions.
The Aerosonde and ScanEagle both required catapults for launch, and the latter used a patented SkyHook for recovery. Although the crane offered more convenience than the Aerosonde's need for a runway, both aircraft required carrying and operating large and heavy launch and recovery equipment.
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McGeer has designed the gasoline-fuelled Flexrotor with VTOL capability to simplify and reduce the cost of launch and recovery. The system includes an automated turnaround system, which retrieves, parks, refuels and launches the aircraft by itself, he says.
The V-tailed Flexrotor takes off and lands in a nose-up attitude that recalls tailsitter designs, although the tail never touches the ground. A roughly 3m (10ft)-span wing provides lift in forward flight. In hover, the Flexrotor's oversized propeller becomes a rotor. Meanwhile, wing-tip thrusters are deployed to provide an anti-torque force.
A 1kg payload suitable for imaging or geomagnetic surveying is stowed in a non-rotating nose. For the surveying application, the system should allow a single operator to control 10 aircraft at the same time, he says.
McGeer declines to reveal details about the Flexrotor's base station while a patent application is pending.
He plans to launch flight-testing on a testbed in mid-2010. A transoceanic flight demonstration is scheduled in two years, with production beginning in late 2012.
In the early 1990s, McGeer co-founded Insitu, and developed first the Aerosonde and then the ScanEagle. AAI has since bought the rights to the Aerosonde, and Boeing has acquired Insitu with the ScanEagle.
Meanwhile, McGeer created Aerovel four years ago using private funding as well as small business grants from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research.
Source: Flight International
