World’s Fastest UAV: 248mph!

World’s Fastest UAV: 248mph!

South Korea unveiled its latest unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is the world’s fastest and also the world’s first remote-controlled aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically. The aircraft has “tilt rotors,” meaning its rotary wings tilt, giving it a helicopter-like capability to vertically take off and land when its wings are facing upward, and the speed and operation range of a jet when its wings are tilted forward, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

UAV South Korea
The new UAV has been in development since 2002 under the leadership of the ministry and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, together with dozens of private businesses and research centers. It has yet to receive an official name. There is only one other aircraft with tilt-rotors in the world, which is the V-22 Osprey used by the U.S. Marine Corp. “This is the world’s second tilt-rotor aircraft but the world’s first UAV with such capabilities,” Nam Ki-man, a ministry official, said at an earlier press briefing. The official added the aircraft was also the world’s fastest UAV with a cruise speed of 400 kilometers per hour, or about “twice as fast as an helicopter.”  The world’s best-known UAV, the U.S. Air Force’s Predator, is said to have a cruise speed of 84 miles per hour or about 135 kilometers per hour, and a maximum speed of about 217 kilometers per hour.   The aircraft’s unique capability of vertical takeoff and landing also means it can have numerous applications. The developers are now working to downsize the aircraft to about 60 percent of its original form, which currently stands at 5 meters in length and 7 meters in width and weighs 1 ton. “It can also be used as the platform for a personal air vehicle that is capable of door-to-door operations without a runway,” Nam said, adding many investors and buyers were already showing interest in the new aircraft.   The price of the aircraft has yet to be set, mainly because the developers are not yet sure of their initial production volume.  Nam said mass production could begin in less than three years after the development of the aircraft is completed in March.

Updated: July 14, 2015 — 9:29 AM

3 Comments

  1. Sorry ,,, That is not the worlds first R/C VTOL … Rotormast has had his V-22 out for 4 .5 yrs now ,, and the normal modeller can buy it over the shelf ….

    The model in the article is just a Korean copy of Bell Textrons UAV ,, called the eagle eye which has been around since 1998 ,, see this article on Bell Textrons home page
    http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/belleagleeyeuav/

    And Rotormast homepage :
    http://www.rotormast.com/rm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61&Itemid=130

  2. This is also not the worlds fastest UAV or first R/C VTOL. Grumman Aircraft has UAV’s flying from aircraft carriers that can fly circles around the korean aircraft. Bell Textron also is way ahead of the Korean aircraft and had models flying many years ago. I also believe that an amatuer RC designer had a VTOL aircraft flying some years ago, but it was not tilt rotor design. Many UAV’s fly at speeds in excess of 500 mph and some in the 1,000 mph range that are not talked about.

  3. David
    Thanks .. you jogged my memory ,, as Tom Hunt back in the 70 -80 ‘s did the vertigo .. which was not a tilt rotor ,,but a single tilt fan VTOL and somewhere in there John Gorhman did the Grumman twin fan VTOL .. Eric Dainte also did a Harrier jump jet to some success back in the 80 – 90 ‘s

    And Bob Kress did some while he was at NASA

    Larry

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