Unmanned Systems Technology 036

US military, SOCOM and the Army Future Command are almost exclusively looking at VTOL transition these days,” Coatney says. “If you’re going to use a small UAV as a multi-role tool, it makes no sense to have it dependent on runways, nor does it make much sense to have to rely on big trailers for transporting heavy equipment such as launch catapults and net-capture recovery systems – that’ll just slow them down and make them vulnerable to enemy fire. “It wasn’t a hard requirement for the contract, but since we were going to install the VPP anyway – and since the VPP-controlled horizontal flight interplays so nicely with the VTOL-transition phases – it made sense for us to invest r&d in that direction.” The company notes that adding a VTOL capability to fixed-wing aircraft always implies some increase in weight compared with a more conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) arrangement, given the extra mechanical or structural parts needed for quadplanes, tiltrotors and tail-sitters alike. However, as Zepher Flight continues developing the Z1 and variants of it, it aims to prove that a well-designed VTOL system can have competitive weight relative to CTOL aircraft, which have to carry wheels, struts, brakes, wing flaps, structural reinforcement and possibly a wing sized for landing requirements. Flight management The customised flight management system (FMS) is produced by Applied Navigation, and is based on its Quattro Autopilot product. Like the Quattro, Zepher’s FMS is STANAG 4586-native, making it compatible for adoption and integration by NATO users without the need for a translation solution to convert signal comms into a format that NATO equipment can receive and decode. The GCS is being developed largely in-house, using the Vigilant Spirit control software that Applied Navigation has licensed from the Air Force Research Laboratory. For the data links between the FMS and GCS, the aim is to have it integrate the latest in mobile ad-hoc radio network mesh radio systems for high-speed sharing of telemetry, imagery and control across the USASOC’s and other users’ operator locations. “We’re using Silvus Technologies’ StreamCaster radios at the moment, and fully intend to provide plug- and-play functionality with Persistent Systems’ MPU5, as well,” says Rob Andrews, Zepher Flight’s UAS development specialist. “We have our eye on a couple of other mesh radio systems as well, as we want to remain agnostic as to whose technology we can leverage, not just for the Z1 but in future versions of our aircraft.” American-Made, Cybersecure from the ground up Integrated, onboard edge computing capabilities Open-Source or customized autopilot software IronClad Secure Controllers for Unmanned Systems asymmetric.com/ironclad What’s protecting your platform? ironclad@asymmetric.com