What's next for the Pentagon after the Replicator programme?
Although the Replicator initiative has made several accomplishments, there are still multiple gaps to plug across the US Department of Defense (DoD) and its services.
UAVOS develops main rotor blade
UAVOS has developed a new main rotor blade for unmanned helicopters with a take-off weight of 77lbs and rotor diameter of 102.36in, the company announced on 29 May.
The new solution uses the technology of hot forming of a composite 'prepreg' material, which involves the manufacture of a blade airfoil in a single step moulding. The process eliminates the delamination of the lower and upper planes as there is no glue seam.
The design also implements warping and narrowing of the blade, which increases rigidity and strength. The technology allows the creation of blades with high aerodynamic characteristics, improving performance as well as making flights more reliable under high operating temperature conditions.
Aliaksei Stratsilatau, lead developer at UAVOS, said: ‘We had to develop and manufacture the main rotor blade on our own after having encountered a number of serious problems when buying this product. Firstly, during the bench tests it came out that the blades have a rather low efficiency. Secondly, the purchased products were not accompanied by any documentation confirming their reliability and quality.
‘During the project development, our team used calculations and the experience of testing the blade for high-altitude HAPS Apus aircraft. Bench tests confirmed our calculations to be correct and demonstrated that the efficiency of the UAVOS blade is higher by 20%.’
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