I stumbled across this site -- https://passerineaircraft.com/ -- and just had to share it. It's a small South African company that has developed a little fixed-wing drone with twin electric ducted fans a bit like a baby Boeing YC-14. It's a "bush drone" designed to operate from short, rough spaces without any need for a launch catapult or recovery net. But that's not the really cool part....
Extrapolating from that design, they came up with the concept described here -- https://passerineaircraft.com/lessons-from-the-vtol-circle-of-misfortune-821/ -- which is basically "fly like a bird" but it has nothing to do with ornithopters. In short, most birds can do zero-distance takeoff and point landings but cannot hover, they are essentially STOL designs with powered landing gear (their legs) that accelerate them instantly to flying speed or decelerate instantly to a stop.
So these guys are working on a design for a fixed-wing drone that can catapult itself into the air or execute a point landing using legs. How cool is that?!? I've always wanted my own little V/STOL aircraft, not to hover, just to be able to fly in and out of my backyard or other small spaces. Maybe the future is an ultralight with legs!
Extrapolating from that design, they came up with the concept described here -- https://passerineaircraft.com/lessons-from-the-vtol-circle-of-misfortune-821/ -- which is basically "fly like a bird" but it has nothing to do with ornithopters. In short, most birds can do zero-distance takeoff and point landings but cannot hover, they are essentially STOL designs with powered landing gear (their legs) that accelerate them instantly to flying speed or decelerate instantly to a stop.
So these guys are working on a design for a fixed-wing drone that can catapult itself into the air or execute a point landing using legs. How cool is that?!? I've always wanted my own little V/STOL aircraft, not to hover, just to be able to fly in and out of my backyard or other small spaces. Maybe the future is an ultralight with legs!
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