Is it still a tiltrotor aircraft if the whole body tilts? The new \u201cFixar\u201d drone, set to be presented at Russia\u2019s MAKS-2019 airshow in late August, is a hybrid of sorts, a quadcopter with fixed wings. With limited moving parts and a flexible design, it\u2019s the kind of dual-use technology worth watching and, perhaps, even imitating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMany companies and UAV manufacturers will present their aircraft, concepts and models\u201d at the MAKS-2019 airshow, said Samuel Bendett, an adviser at the Center for Naval Analyses. \u201cThis Fixar UAV is a \u2018self-initiated\u2019 project by the manufacturer, with the hope of getting attention from potential civilian and military customers at the air show.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike the more eponymous tiltrotor craft, which switch distinctly from rotor-powered takeoff and landing to propeller-driven level flight, the Fixar instead has its four rotors in a permanently fixed position. The engines remain in position while the whole frame of the aircraft can lean backwards for more traditional vertical flights or stay level to operate as a fixed-wing machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the Fixar\u2019s marketing photos show it working in fields of crops, manufacturer IKS also bills it as designed specifically to operate in windy conditions and in mountains, suggesting that the whole machine might have a role in ISR and cargo transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat caught my attention in particular was that the drone can operate in \u2018mountainous conditions\u2019 due to its unique design,\u201d said Bendett. \u201cIn fact, Russian military has been practicing the operation of different UAVs at high altitudes and in high wind \u2014 so this Fixar UAV can prove useful right away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like all duel-use platforms, a drone is only as useful as the payloads put on it. Cameras and supply storage are likely options, though nothing yet suggests any new demand on the airframe. An ability to fly fast and from small patches of land without a runway is valuable, but it needs to have a certain range and speed to be a better choice than the baseline low cost and simplicity of civilian quadcopters. A large internal security market might support that and could easily lead to the Fixar in police roles, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt present, there is no UAV in the Russian military that has characteristics similar to the Fixar, but given a steady rate of UAS acquisition by the MOD \u2014 at 300 UAVs per year for the next several years \u2014 it\u2019s safe to assume that the Russian military is looking to diversify its UAV fleet beyond the workhorses like Eleton or Orlan,” said Bendett.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To reduce the number of moving parts, the whole body tilts, specifically to operate in windy conditions and mountain warfare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":69696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":27,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,36,27],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3144],"class_list":["post-31769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters","category-unmanned"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KFUZF5ZRVNH7BMGZQ3JLC7SPLU","arc_canonical_url":"\/unmanned\/2019\/08\/13\/will-this-hybrid-drone-give-russia-a-high-altitude-advantage\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n