NW-44 engine logs flight hour milestone
Northwest UAV’s NW-44 Heavy Fuel Engine has logged 1500 sorties on combat and commercial small UAS, the company announced on 20 June.
The purpose-built commercial off-the-shelf engine is a lightweight, heavy fuel engine designed to support aircraft in the category of 40-80lbs (18-35kgs) max gross take-off weight category, including military Tier II UAS and the FAA’s 55lb weight class UAS.
Chris Harris, president and owner, Northwest UAV, said: ‘We’re proud of this milestone for the NW-44 Heavy Fuel Engine.
‘The NW-44 offers something unique in the small unmanned aircraft systems market – consistency. Most systems are based on hobby engines which are inconsistent from engine to engine, a throw-away after its short life. One NW-44 engine can log a thousand or more flight hours and multiple overhauls. They’re designed to allow simple routine maintenance, and periodic overhauls much like a jet engine.’
The company is currently developing and testing a series of engines that borrow the design elements of the NW-44 engine for aircraft that fall outside of the Tier II weight range. The engines offer similar capabilities for larger vehicles, and is proving successful in testing.
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