Tactical Robotics, a subsidiary of Urban Aeronautics, is expanding the flight testing of its Cormorant UAV and has released new flight footage of the aircraft.
Throughout the summer, during ongoing, untethered flight testing, Tactical Robotics has been expanding the flight envelope of the Cormorant prototype (formerly known as the AirMule), while testing modifications that enhance the flight control and multiple sensor suite. The company stated it was working on increasing safety and reliability through implementation of full redundancy of all critical functions in the aircraft.
As of September 2016, fully autonomous navigation and ATOL (automatic take-off and landing) are standard on all flights. Upcoming tests will include the gradual and careful increase of airspeed (presently crossing 30kts), as well as full pattern flights over adjacent fields, and the return to the airfield for landing.
Cormorant is a fully autonomous VTOL UAV designed for both military and civil applications. Its primary military missions will be cargo delivery, casualty evacuation (CasEvac), maritime missions and large scale, humanitarian relief.
In the civil market, Cormorant will be able to fulfill a broad range of emergency response and commercial applications, eventually including parcel delivery. While other parcel delivery drones are designed to carry out last-mile delivery of individual, lightweight packages, Cormorant will be able to carry payloads of up to 500kg (1,100 lb) over distances of approximately 50km.
The footage can be viewed here.
September 23, 2016
