Hybrid Quadcopter UAV

Hybrid Quadcopter UAV

What has the long-distance capability of a Predator and can take off and land like a helicopter?  Meet Latitude Engineering’s Hybrid Quadcopter. This 25-pound, electric-powered prototype UAV looks like a twin-boom drone but has four multi-rotor blades.  Bayani Birkinbine, a design engineer on the project, says that flying it was a challenge. “There are  autopilots with fixed-wing control laws, and there are autopilots with  helicopter control laws, so we had to go into the firmware and do a lot of  custom engineering.” The final product (which the U.S. Navy has expressed interest in!) will be gas powered, with a carbon-fiber body and weighing around 60 pounds. It should be able to fly for 12 to 15 hours while carrying an 8-pound payload, including a 2.3-pound electro-optical infrared camera. Stay tuned!

Updated: July 27, 2015 — 11:05 AM

2 Comments

  1. The quad copter blades may be electric powered but that looks like a gas burner driving the pusher prop.

  2. Ok this is cool but why do we always show things the military are interested in,
    Why not keep it a secret so the others don’t know just my thoughts lol

Comments are closed.

Air Age Media ©
WordPress Lightbox