WHIRL-A-DRONE BEGINS TO SPIN

“Right now, it looks a lot like a Frisbee with four wings,” the Wall Street Journal says. But, one day, this early pro­to­type could become “an unmanned air­craft capa­ble of hov­er­ing in the same spot for days at a time.”
The craft, known as the Whirl, is being designed at the “Bike Shop” — a small, secre­tive devel­op­ment shop tucked away in a cor­ner of Raytheon, the giant defense con­trac­tor.
“What makes the Whirl rad­i­cal is the guid­ance sys­tem,” the paper says. “Slow-speed pro­pellers keep the air­craft spin­ning, and rudder-like air­foils at the tip of each wing gen­er­ate thrust. They do that by act­ing as sails, adjust­ing to the wind so the Whirl can either fly down­wind or tack into it. The wingtip sails and the elec­tronic brains that oper­ate wing flaps to keep the Whirl sta­ble in high winds are inno­va­tions included in a U.S. patent appli­ca­tion Raytheon filed in July.”
So far, a 20-foot wingspan model of the ship has hov­ered near the ceil­ing of a Raytheon hangar. But soon, the Whirl will be ready for open-air tests. “Then,” the Journal notes, “the com­pany will ask the Pentagon to finance the devel­op­ment of Whirls with enough fuel capac­ity to fly for four days.”
THERE’S MORE: New Scientist puts its spin on the Whirl drone here.
AND MORE: “It may look like a combine-harvester,” declares the Independent, “but a plane designed in a Tuscan farm­house is being hailed as one of the great break­throughs in aero­nau­ti­cal his­tory. ” Actually, to me the FanWing looks a lit­tle more like a heli­copter with a giant razor blade attached. (Thanks to Defense Tech reader RC for the tip.)

September 8th, 2004 | Drones | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.