October 15, 2017

Long range and endurance are capabilities not often associated with VTOL aircraft. But Aerovel’s unmanned Flexrotor, a unique miniature tailsitter, is cut from a different cloth. Last week a Flexrotor named for the sea nymph Actaea lifted off into a grey and rainy morning with 7.5 kg of fuel onboard. It transitioned from hover to…[ Read more ]

November 2, 2016

Many weeks of slow and costly slogging through ice and fog might have been in store for a workboat fleet, sent a thousand miles from the nearest port to retrieve massive anchors from mooring sites spread across the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. But the lead ship was equipped with Flexrotor, a small unmanned aircraft built…[ Read more ]

January 19, 2016

“We get experience faster by flying aircraft simultaneously,” observes Aerovel’s Tad McGeer about the first dual-Flexrotor flight in mid-January. “People appreciate the aircraft’s capability – an exceptional combination of small size, light footprint, VTOL and long endurance. Now they ask about reliability. For definitive answers we have to move further along the learning curve, looking…[ Read more ]

November 13, 2015

“We panned the camera out over the Chesapeake, and there they were, four-and-a-half kilometers away,” recalls Aerovel’s Tad McGeer. “It was our first day of demonstrating Flexrotor for the US Coast Guard.” Flexrotor, Aerovel’s exceptional unmanned aircraft, has caught the Coast Guard’s attention with its unique combination of small size, light footprint, VTOL, long endurance,…[ Read more ]

January 5, 2015

Precision Integrated Programs of Newberg, Oregon, ended 2014 by placing a launch order for Flexrotor, Aerovel’s exceptional long-endurance VTOL UAV. Delivery of aircraft and support equipment is scheduled for spring 2015. “We are going after new civil applications at sea and on land which require big improvements over existing aircraft in economics, footprint, and endurance,” explained…[ Read more ]

November 24, 2014

As 2015 deliveries approach for Flexrotor, Aerovel’s exceptional long-endurance VTOL UAV, the US Government has ruled that it can be exported free of restrictions under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR, which in recent years have been applied to unmanned aircraft regardless of application). This means that Flexrotor, with its unprecedented combination of 40+…[ Read more ]