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| US Navy VTOL Hybrid Drone |
The VTOL hybrid drone will later be used for sending light cargo from ship to ship and from ship to coast over long distances. The injectors of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) are currently evaluating a program called the UAS Blue Water Maritime Logistics. In order to pass the test, the drone must meet the technical requirements set by the Military Sealift Command (MSC) and the Fleet Forces Command (FFC).
The US Navy requires that the cargo drone be able to carry a payload of 9 kg to the destination of a moving vessel. While the range of the drone must be able to reach 40 km without having to refuel. So far, 65 drone types have been analyzed by the US Navy.
Bill Macchione, head of the Blue Water Maritime Logistics program, said the navy needed a type of drone that could operate well through tough environments that included strong winds, open water and ships stranded at sea.
Regarding the type of drone from Skyways being evaluated, it is said that it is a hybrid drone equipped with fixed wing and four electric motors for takeoff and landing operations. The manufacturer says this drone is capable of flying for a full hour in autonomous mode in the ocean.
“The hard part is that we are only given a rough estimate of the ship's location before takeoff. The drone must then approach the ship and land on its deck vertically in strong wind conditions, this is where Computer Vision plays a big role. We won the contest as the only ones who could fly the entire mission 1 hour without human intervention at all, "said Charles Acknin, founder and CEO of Skyways.
