27 April 2020

Companies unveil offerings for US Air Force's Agility Prime eVTOL effort

by Pat Host

Companies are offering aircraft ranging from heavy lift, one-tonne payload capacity platforms to smaller, 200 kg payload capacity quadcopters, for the US Air Force’s (USAF’s) Agility Prime unmanned electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) procurement effort, which starts on 27 April.

Sabrewing Aircraft will offer its Rhaegal-B, an unmanned heavy lift, long-range unmanned aircraft capable of carrying 2,450 kg in VTOL mode or over 4,500 kg as a conventional aircraft using a paved runway. Elroy Air will offer its Chaparral, an unmanned four-rotor aircraft that is expected to carry 100–225 kg with a range of 500 km. Piasecki Aircraft will offer both its Aerial Reconfigurable Embedded System (ARES) multimission modular unmanned tilt-wing turbine powered VTOL platform and its all-electric PA890 eVTOL low disc-loading Slowed-Rotor Winged Compound helicopter.

Sabrewing Aircraft Company’s Rhaegal-B heavy lift, long range, unmanned cargo aircraft features a pair of proprietary detect-and-avoid systems to allow it to operate in GPS-denied or jammed environments. (Sabrewing Aircraft)

Other companies expected to offer aircraft or technologies for Agility Prime include AirMap, Beta Technologies, Joby Aviation, Honeywell, LIFT Aircraft, Transcend Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Collins Aerospace.

Sabrewing’s Rhaegal-B can perform VTOL as well as takeoff and land horizontally. The platform is expected to have a range of 1,000 n miles at an altitude of 22,000 feet and at speeds of up to 200 kt. The Rhaegal-B uses electric motors to turn fans within ducts that provide lift during take-off and landing, but then uses a main wing to provide lift during cruise flight.

Ed De Reyes, Sabrewing Aircraft chairman and CEO, told Jane’s