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Otto Aerospace announced on Wednesday that it has completed a flight-test campaign for its unmanned drone aircraft.
The campaign was conducted from Spaceport America in New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) airspace and validated Otto's laminar-flow design technology. The flights were completed in partnership with Swift Engineering, which managed vehicle preparation, coordinated range and telemetry support.
"This aircraft proved what we've modeled for years, that high-efficiency laminar-flow aerodynamics can deliver extraordinary endurance and performance," said Scott Drennan, Otto Aerospace president and CEO. "We're proud that Otto's expertise helped advance DARPA's research objectives and equally proud of our team for executing a flawless flight campaign that pushes aerodynamic science forward."
The company claims that its laminar-flow design airframe dramatically reduces aerodynamic drag by maintaining smooth, uninterrupted airflow over an aircraft's surfaces. Data from the flight test will be used to design parameters for future energy-relay systems or fuel-efficient, long-endurance platforms."Swift is proud to partner with Otto on this breakthrough," said Swift Engineering president Hamed Khalkhali. "The performance demonstrated in flight confirms the promise of laminar-flow aerodynamics to redefine long-endurance efficiency for unmanned systems across defense and commercial applications."
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The drone was funded partly by a 24-month contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund (OECIF) to advance research for DARPA's Energy Web Aircraft (EWA) program. The program is focused on power-beaming and distributed energy web exploration. Its goal with the drone was to permit laser-based power transfer across long distances by using airborne relays to send energy to aircraft, keeping them in the sky indefinitely. The announced flight-test campaign was funded by Otto Aerospace and done outside the scope of the contract.