U.S. Department of Defense increases investment in drones

UTM’s AirMap has received $3.3 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense "to assist in product development and engineering support to integrate sUAS mission planning, post-mission analysis, and unmanned traffic management software."

The award is part of the action in Chapter 3 of the National Defense Production Law, "aim to help and strengthen the basic domestic basic industrial capabilities of small unmanned aerial vehicle systems, aerospace technology, and shipbuilding, and national defense-critical labor. These actions will help Retain important labor capacity in the entire chaos caused by COVID-19, and resume some jobs lost due to the pandemic. The department still maintains close cooperation with FEMA and HHS. In the overall management of the coronavirus pandemic by the US government, Provided nearly $2.9 billion in life-saving medical services, supplies and equipment to service members and federal agencies."

The Department of Defense has signed contracts totaling $13.4 million with five companies to maintain the capacity of this important domestic industrial base. In addition to AirMap, other awards include:

1. ModalAI, located in San Diego, California, has received US$3 million in funding to develop its next-generation American-made flight controller, which will achieve advanced autonomy, including GPS refusal to navigate and full environment obstacle avoidance.
 
2. Skydio, located in Redwood City, California, received $4 million to improve the hardware/software and data link of the flight controller for its sUAS so that powerful components can be purchased and used in the U.S. government's unmanned systems .

3. Graffiti Enterprises, located in Somerset, New Jersey, received a $1.5 million modification to modify the commercial data link of its Department of Defense sUAS, including operating in restricted frequency bands, reducing the size, weight, and Power and improve the security and resilience of data links for software development.

4. The Obsidian Sensors company (Obsidian Sensors) in San Diego, California, U.S. received 1.6 million US dollars in funding for the manufacture of low-cost dual-heat sUAS cameras, which can be installed on the gimbal of the stabilizer and then integrated and integrated Installed on a small packaged ISR system.

The five awards were awarded at the opening ceremony of the Department of Defense Innovation (DIU) Business Solutions. "DIU led the development of the UAS framework for the U.S. Department of Defense, which aims to provide the Department of Defense and other federal government stakeholders with secure and reliable sUAS capabilities.

15KGS payload 2-4 hours endurance VTOL for delivery

simpleplanes vtol 15KGS payload 2-4 hours endurance MTOW 50KGS VTOL frame KIT

simpleplanes vtol UAV platform is an electric long-haul composite wing vertical take-off and landing drone independently developed by our company. The overall layout of the composite wing with fixed wing and four-rotor is used to solve the vertical take-off and landing of the fixed-wing UAV in a simple and reliable way. The difficulty of the fixed-wing UAV has the characteristics of long flight time, high speed, long distance and the vertical take-off and landing of the rotorless drone. The vertical take-off and landing mode greatly enhances the environmental adaptability of the drone platform. The man-machine platform can operate smoothly in complex terrain and densely populated areas such as mountains, hills and jungles, greatly expanding the scope of application of drones, and is an ideal choice for industrial-grade drones.
The FD50P UAV platform is equipped with industrial-grade vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing flight control and navigation system, as well as professional aerial aerial survey and inspection ground station software. It can ensure that the drone can fly autonomously throughout the process, without operator intervention to complete the autonomous take-off and flight status. In the flight phase of conversion, autonomous cruise, and autonomous landing, it also supports automatic route planning for 1000 waypoints and emergency standby plan for 100 waypoints.
The drone platform has the following features and advantages:
a) Practical and efficient: it has the characteristics of fixed-wing UAV’s long flight time, fast speed, long distance and large load;
b) Vertical take-off and landing: with the take-off and landing mode of the rotorless drone, greatly reducing the requirements for landing and landing and airspace;
c) low cost of use: no complicated and bulky launching and recycling equipment, no additional recycling sensors required;
d) Simple operation: integrated special flight control and navigation system, full autonomous flight, operators only need to send flight plans, no professional training and operational experience;
e) Compact system: no complicated auxiliary equipment, simple transportation, deployment, maintenance and withdrawal.

Specification

Body length: 2.5m
Wingspan: 3.8m
Maximum takeoff weight: 50kg
Maximum payload: 15kg
Life time: 2h@15kg payload, 4h@10kg payload
Flying radius: 200-400km (depending on the amount of oil)
Maximum control distance: Remote control (manual control): 1km
Ground station control (depending on the distance of the digital transmission): 30km standard
Maximum speed: 130km/h
Cruising speed: 100-120km/h
Maximum oil load: 12L
Lift limit: 4000m
Maximum wind resistance: 12m/s (6 wind)
Use environment: -10 °C +45 °C; anti-light rain
Climb/lower power battery: 4*14000mAh-6S lithium battery
Take-off and landing mode: vertical takeoff and landing
Shipping size: 1.6*0.7*0.6m (length * width * height)

Recommended Set-up:

4 x motor 9016 160KV
4 x Tmotor 200A 12S ESC
2 x Tmotor 30.9.2 Propeller CW&CCW
1 x Hobbywing 12S 120A ESC
1 x DA 100CC EFI engineer
5 x Hitec 5585 Servo
1 x JXF 24*16 Propeller CW

NOTE： THE PRICE IS JUST KIT, WITHOUT ANY ELECTRONIC, AND THE PACKING IS IN WOODEN CASE NOT IN ALUMINUM BOX!