The view aft from the host C-130 ‘Hercules’ as the Silent Arrow starts on its glide to the target.

Silent Arrow® Passes Next Phase of Testing

Recently declassified images of the groundbreaking cargo carrying glider reveal C-130 tests in the desert.

Updating a story we first reported in the February issue, Chip Yates of Yates Electrospace provided these recently declassified images and video to RCSD.

C-130 ‘Loadies’ get ready to “kick [the Silent Arrow] out the door”.

He also provided the brief comment: “C-130 Silent Arrow deployments carrying a record-setting 1,000 pounds of emergency cargo, rigged as a CDS [container delivery system] bundle, loadies kick it out the door, wings spring open and Silent Arrow turns away on course for these completely autonomous flights. Proud of this team!”

The Silent Arrow looking back at the C-130 from which it recently departed.

In the next image, a camera mounted on the Silent Arrow looks back at the C-130 just to the lower left of the sun. Chip also provided the short video below which more clearly illustrates the Silent Arrow concept.

RCSD will continue to track this fascinating project so we can bring updates to readers. We hope it serves as inspiration for other similar commercial projects which are clearly ‘RC soaring adjacent’.

Also, Chip Yates has committed to a future article which will go over the project in detail. But that will have to await some downtime for him which, based on these images, we think might still be a ways off!

A short video edit of the recently-concluded C-130 deployment tests.

©2021 The NEW RC Soaring Digest

All images and video are ©2021 Yates Electrospace, all rights reserved, used here with permission. Also, did you know that we actually carried this breaking news on our Twitter feed a couple of days — follow us there for early access to all sorts of exciting stories. Now, read the next article in this issue, return to the previous article or go to the table of contents. Downloadable PDFS: just this article or this entire issue.