September 26, 2018

Diminutive, and squat on its four lunar-lander legs, a Flexrotor spins-up its outsize rotor and levitates into the hot, high desert twilight. As it disappears into the darkness, its legs join into a trim rear fuselage, its broad wings take over, and the rotor slows to a flickering idle for a long, efficient cruise until…[ Read more ]

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 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 ]