Israelis develop tilt rotor electric UAV

Strategy Page:

An Israeli firm (IAI) recently revealed that it had developed a tilt rotor UAV. Named the Panther, the UAV has two electric props. The engines swivel for takeoff and landing, as well as for hovering. IAI plans to offer a range of models, with wingspans of from 2 meters (6.2 feet) to 8 meters (25 feet). The working prototype has six meter (18.6 feet) wings and fuel cells that give it an endurance of six hours. This model has an eight kilogram (17.6 pound) payload that can carry day/night vidcams and a laser designator.

The electric motors mean that the UAV is very quiet, an important consideration if the UAV is hovering at low altitude to keep an eye on something. This is important for use in urban areas, where a hovering UAV can view things concealed from a high flying UAV. The tilt rotor capability eliminates any difficulties in takeoff and landing, and makes this UAV ideal for operating off warships.

...
It sounds pretty cool.  The US Marines could probably use something like this to scout the landing area for an amphibious operation.  The Israelis have been a leader in UAV technology.  This suggest they have not lost their touch for innovation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more