Autonomous Glider Technology Wins Air Force Contract
Aviation pioneer Chip Yates scores another win on the road to widespread commercialization of his Silent Arrow® technology.
In just a little over three years since receiving its first government contract, Yates Electrospace recently announced its Silent Arrow® has been awarded a new contract from the US Air Force. The new program is intended to produce a downsized variant capable of being deployed from a CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.
The Silent Arrow® is a fully autonomous, one-time-use cargo carrying glider. Once it has been dropped from its host aircraft after being carried within proximity of its eventual target destination, the four spring-loaded wings rotate into their flight position and onboard avionics guide the glider to its landing zone. At present, Silent Arrow® variants are delivering payloads for both military and humanitarian missions around the globe.
RCSD is always looking for stories about commercial applications of R/C soaring technology and it doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to see the obvious overlaps between the two domains. We are excited the see the potential the Silent Arrow® demonstrates and hope readers will perhaps be inspired to think about their own commercial applications for the R/C soaring technology.
And for those who are wondering, yes, it’s that Chip Yates, the American inventor and innovator famous for his record-setting electric aircraft and electric motorcycles along with a long list of other remarkable achievements.
In a late-breaking development on February 24th, 2021 the Silent Arrow® was nominated for the illustrious National Aeronautic Association’s 2020 Robert J. Collier Trophy. Past winners of the Collier include Orville Wright, Howard Hughes, Glenn Curtiss and Bill Lear, putting Yates and the Silent Arrow® in some pretty elite company, to say the least.
In a recent conversation with the RCSD Staff, Mr. Yates committed to a future article which will tell the entire story of the Silent Arrow® from its initial conception, through the development phases to its present status. We hope he will even speculate a little as to what the future holds for this fascinating program. As he said to us:
“The story is good and should be told!” Candidly, Chip, we can’t wait to help tell it.
©2021 The NEW R/C Soaring Digest
Read the next article, return to the previous article or go to the table of contents. Downloadable PDFs: article issue
