During the recent Aero Friedrichshafen, Diamond CEO Christian Dries announced that his company was in the process of developing a robotic helicopter, the “Hero”, capable of conducting autonomous missions.

I had to let that news sink in… Sure, we had already witnessed optionally manned DA-42 variants. However, the reader will forgive me if I didn’t see this one coming. It’s one thing to develop a fixed wing aircraft with some sensing capability; it’s a completely different one to develop a rotorcraft (with no prior experience to speak of) that has sufficient processing power to make its own decisions. What’s more, Mr. Dries indicated that the “Hero” has already flown.

So far, not much has been revealed, but for the sake of initiating a discussion we can speculate the following:

• The two engines and associated rotors will likely be placed side by side to improve lateral stability.
• With 250 lbs of sensor equipment and a total weight of just over 1,300 lbs, it’s safe to assume that there won’t be much room for payload. If we compare these basic specs to, say, the “Firescout”, the size of the “Hero” should be substantially smaller. I also suspect that some of the weight savings will come in the form of reduced metal in the fuselage and added composites (as is the case in other Diamond-made fixed-wing products).
• The lack of payload and the stated ability for the “Hero” to hover for 6.5 hours point towards an aircraft that will be only used for reconnaissance and surveillance operations. In that respect, its missions will be more focused than those of Boeing’s Hummingbird, as an example. This assumption seems to be further reinforced by Mr. Dries’ comments that the aircraft can hover for “nearly four hours” over one spot with no mention about range. One has to believe that specific applications removed from the battlefield likely also include border patrol.

At this point my primary thought is whether Diamond has sufficient financial wherewithal to bring the project to completion: we are aware of the delays in the D-Jet program (which, by the way, is a beautiful aircraft), but then again the recent trend towards UAVs appears to give credence to Diamond’s new strategy. And once we find out who is their yet-to-be-named partner, we may be able to put all doubts to rest.

What’s certain is that with the number of players in the UAV market, Diamond will be in good company.

Cheers,

Raf.

Recently, a team composed of Boeing, GE, and Georgia Tech completed an 18-month study on future commercial airplane concepts under the NASA N+3 Program. The goal of the program is to explore revolutionary aircraft concepts aimed at entry into service date of 2030 and beyond, with aggressive noise, emissions, and fuel burn targets. The program looked at both subsonic and supersonic aircraft concepts. The Boeing-led team looked at five different subsonic concepts as part of the Subsonic, Ultra Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) project. Concepts ranged from a conventional tube and wing design (SUGAR Free and Refined SUGAR) to a high span, strut-braced wing aircraft (SUGAR High and SUGAR Volt), and a hybrid wing body configuration (SUGAR Ray). To read more about Boeing’s technology research and the future of aircraft design, click here.

While not all concepts met the ambitious goal set by NASA, the SUGAR Volt concept, which adds an electric battery gas turbine hybrid propulsion system, can reduce fuel burn by greater than 70%. It also reduces overall energy use by 55% when battery energy is included. With the fuel burn improvement, the aircraft has an added benefit of large reductions of CO2 and nitrous oxide emissions.

What’s preventing engineers from designing such aircraft today? One major challenge is battery technology. While there are rapid advancements in battery technology, a level of energy density suitable for aerospace application is still years away.  Will a hybrid electric open rotor propulsion be the game changing technology the industry is seeking? We hope so. There have been many innovative aircraft concepts that were not adopted due to either the infrastructural or operational constraints. As the price of fuel continues to increase, the industry will hopefully be more acceptable to these innovations.

Image credit: NASA/The Boeing Company