The Army on Thursday awarded a $1.9 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to Electra.aero, the manufacturer of a nine-passenger, hybrid-electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) design, to perform powered wind tunnel testing.

Similar to Electra’s other SBIR and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBTT) Phase II and III engagements with AFWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Air Force, the Army contract is a quid-pro-quo arrangement.

Electra will get the opportunity to leverage military test facilities as it collects data that will inform aircraft design and development. The Army, meanwhile, can explore the eSTOL’s unique capabilities—such as its miniscule runway requirement—for logistics operations in “contested” environments.

“There is a substantial benefit to employing the right-sized aircraft for a given payload-range mission,” said Ben Marchionna, director of technology and innovation at Electra. “Many of the most commonly deployed military logistics solutions in use today are flown well below their intended payload capacity. Our eSTOL aircraft can fulfill these missions while using dramatically less fuel, providing much more range, operating at significantly reduced noise levels, and utilizing the same constrained operational ground footprints.”

According to Electra, the eSTOL cruises at 175 knots and is capable of carrying up to nine passengers or 2,500 pounds of cargo. The company claims it will have more than twice the payload, 10 times the range, and 70 percent lower operating costs compared to electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) alternatives, while offering lower noise and fuel consumption.

The aircraft has a range of 500 nm for commercial use cases. But with range extensions, the Army will be able to fly it for 1,000 nm.

The defining feature of Electra’s design is its use of blown-lift technology, which redirects slipstream flows over the aircraft’s wings into large flaps and ailerons. By “multiplying lift,” as Electra puts it, the eSTOL can take off at just 35 mph, reducing the runway requirement to 150 feet.

Electra says it is the first manufacturer to deploy blown lift in an aircraft with a distributed electric propulsion system. That system takes the form of eight electric motors powered by a turbogenerator. The latter can run on both electricity or traditional aviation fuel and recharges the aircraft’s batteries in flight. Because of this, airports will not need to install electric aircraft chargers to accommodate it, Electra says.

The manufacturer intends to certify its flagship model as a fixed wing aircraft under FAR Part 23 and EASA CS-23, allowing it to be operated with a standard fixed wing pilot’s certificate. That removes a key hurdle facing the eVTOL industry, which will need to train a new generation of powered-lift-certified pilots under FAA proposals.

The Army will be one of the earliest users of the eSTOL, but Electra has plenty of commercial arrangements lined up. Those include more than 2,000 preorder sales of its flagship aircraft to major customers, among them American operators Bristow Group and JSX and India’s JetSetGo

This week, the manufacturer announced a partnership with Wilbur Air, the newly formed operator subsidiary of Australian vertiport developer Skyportz. Electra and Skyportz in 2021 signed a letter of intent for 100 aircraft.

Electra expects to begin eSTOL deliveries in 2028 following certification.

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During the two-hour humanitarian joint operation Saturday, more than 38,000 meals ready to eat (MREs) were dropped from U.S. C-130s along the Gaza coastline, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).

• READ MORE: The Goodness of Colonel Halvorsen, the Candy Bomber

The coastline locations were chosen specifically as areas thought to allow civilians the best access to the aid, senior administration officials said Saturday, adding that the drop was the first of a series.

The United Nations said the drop zone was in a territory where at least 576,000 civilians are a step away from famine conditions five months into the Israel-Hamas war, Reuters reported.

• READ MORE: Georgia ANG Takes Delivery of First C-130J-30 Super Hercules

The nearly 70 pallets of aid bundles were prepared by the U.S. Army’s 165th Quartermaster Company at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia on Friday and rigged with parachutes before they were loaded onto the C-130Js, the Air Force said. Each airlifter carried 22 pallets.

• READ MORE: Pentagon Confirms U.S. Flying Surveillance Drones Over Gaza

“The DOD [Department of Defense] humanitarian airdrops contribute to ongoing U.S. government efforts to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza,” CENTCOM said in a statement. “We are conducting planning for potential follow-on airborne aid delivery missions. These airdrops are part of a sustained effort to get more aid into Gaza, including by expanding the flow of aid through land corridors and routes.”

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The move comes as the service said it made a “sober assessment” of modern warfare that prompted it to “rebalance its aviation modernization investments.” 

“In reviewing the FARA program in light of new technological developments, battlefield developments, and current budget projections, Army leaders assessed that the increased capabilities it offered could be more affordably and effectively achieved by relying on a mix of enduring, unmanned, and space-based assets,” the Army said.

Sikorsky’s Raider X and the Bell 360 Invictus prototypes were the two contenders for the FARA program geared to replace the retired Bell OH-58 Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopter. Development on that program will stop at the end of fiscal 2024 prototyping activities, the Army said.

The decision was made as a result of lessons learned from the ongoing war in Ukraine, according to one service official.

“We are learning from the battlefield—especially in Ukraine—that aerial reconnaissance has fundamentally changed,” General Randy George, chief of staff of the Army, said in a statement. “Sensors and weapons mounted on a variety of unmanned systems and in space are more ubiquitous, further reaching, and more inexpensive than ever before.”

The service said it is also phasing out systems that aren’t considered “survivable on today’s battlefield,” such as the Shadow and Raven legacy uncrewed aircraft systems, and is ending production of the UH-60V Black Hawk variant due to the rise in cost. Instead, the service said it is committing to a new multiyear contract to buy the UH-60M Black Hawk, an airframe that offers a service life of more than two decades.

The Army is also delaying entering production of its next-generation replacement engine—the General Electric Aerospace T901 Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP)—to ensure adequate time to integrate it with AH-64 and UH-60 platforms.

According to the Army, the revamped aviation priorities will allow for more resources to make investments, such as advancing the CH-47F Block II Chinook helicopter formally into production and “end uncertainty” over its future. The service is also continuing its commitment to the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) under development to replace the Army’s fleet of UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. That program is on the path to fielding to its first operational unit in Fiscal 2030.

“Although Army leadership had to make difficult tradeoffs between programs, this plan will allow the Army to continue building modern capability across its aviation portfolio while funding other critical priorities in future budgets,” the service said in a statement.

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The firm-fixed-price contract was awarded to Bombardier on December 12 by the Army  Contracting Command-Redstone Arsenal, in coordination with the Army Fixed Wing Project Office, the service announced Wednesday. 

• READ MORE: Bombardier Reports Q3 Growth in Revenues

The HADES prototype will be the Army’s first large-cabin business jet used for aerial intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), able to provide advanced deep-sensing capabilities.

For nearly 50 years, the Army has operated the Guardrail Common Sensor ISR legacy special electronic mission aircraft. The Cold War-era turboprop fleet based on a Beechcraft King Air B200 is facing obsolescence, forcing the Army to source parts from the boneyard, Defense News reported.

• READ MORE: Navy Deploys Flexrotor UAVs for ISR in Gulf of Oman

“HADES will bring the Army increased range, speed, endurance, and aerial ISR depth,” said Colonel Joe Minor, project manager for Army fixed-wing aircraft. “HADES will operate at higher altitudes than legacy turboprop platforms. Higher altitudes equate to an ability to sense farther and more persistently into areas of interest. Deep sensing is the Army’s No. 1 operational imperative for the Army of 2030.”

• READ MORE: Bombardier Unveils Advanced Avionics Upgrade for Global Series Jets

Under the deal, the Army will buy one Global 6500 jet and retains the option to purchase two more over the next three years. The first prototype aircraft is to be delivered by October 1.

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The Block II orders are part of a modernization plan aimed at updating the Army’s aging Chinook heavy-lift cargo helicopter fleet, which first entered service in the early 1960s. 

The $271 million deal increases the number of the Block II special operations variant of Chinooks under contract to 42, according to the aircraft manufacturer.

• READ MORE: Army Special Ops Ups Block II Chinook Order

“The Chinook has been a key player in the special operations domain for many years,” said Heather McBryan, vice president and program manager of cargo programs at Boeing. “USASOAC and international allies have used the unique capabilities of the Chinook to complete the most daring missions around the globe. With the new and improved MH-47G Block II aircraft, USASOAC is not only receiving the most capable Chinook helicopter, they are also provided the flexibility to add additional upgrades as their needs evolve over time.” 

• READ MORE: USSF MH-47 Chinooks Deployed in Sudan Evacuation

The USASOAC contract award comes as the Army continues a heavy-lift study expected to determine whether or not it will move ahead with full-rate production of the more advanced CH-47 Block II.

In July, Boeing announced the end of Block I production when it received orders for 18 CH-47F Block I Chinooks for South Korea and one aircraft for Spain. The deliveries are expected in 2027.

Time for a special upgrade.

Thank you, @USASOAC, for a contract to produce six remanufactured MH-47G Block II aircraft. The new and improved Block II gives special operations the most capable #Chinook in the world.

More: https://t.co/JP1KvX8RKl pic.twitter.com/hvylFJM4XT

— Boeing Defense (@BoeingDefense) December 11, 2023

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Now, Airbus U.S. Space and Defense is building on the success of Zephyr by launching a new, purpose-built business line dedicated to military UAVs, the company announced Thursday. The business doesn’t yet have a name. But its goal will be to effectively optimize, scale, and deploy uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).

Led by retired U.S. Army aviator Brian Zarchin, vice president of UAS for Airbus U.S. Space and Defense, the new unit will bring together experienced industry drone operators, as well as a few who flew UAVs for the military. Leadership will also comprise former defense engineers, maintainers, and stratospheric aviation experts.

“Airbus U.S. Space and Defense is uniquely positioned and passionately driven to provide trusted and affordable stratospheric deep sensing and network extension capability to our Warfighters,” said Zarchin. “With ongoing great power competition, it’s critical that we do our part to help deter threats and, in crisis or conflict, present our adversaries with multiple dilemmas. Our new business line is laser-focused on helping the DOD solve its toughest UAS challenges, from surface to stratosphere.”

Zarchin and his team members will bring expertise in Army tactical UAS, payload integration engineering, and fixed-wing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations within the Army’s Military Intelligence Corps. “High altitude experts” formerly with Google and the U.S. Air Force will also be on the roster.

Increasingly, the DOD is working with drone manufacturers, such as Skydio, Red Cat, and Teledyne FLIR, to bolster its capabilities. 

According to its website, the department flies more than 11,000 different UAVs—ranging from hulking behemoths to insect-sized drones—primarily to support training, surveillance, and the testing of tactics and equipment. The DOD sends the occasional UAV shipment to Ukraine to combat Russian forces, and it’s aiding the Israel Defense Forces’ hostage recovery efforts in Gaza with unarmed MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drones.

Recently, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks revealed the U.S. Replicator Initiative: Its goal is to “outmatch” the drone production of enemies (such as China and Russia) by producing UAVs that are “small, smart, cheap, and many.” Over the next two years, the U.S. will churn out several thousand systems. And Hicks noted that private sector UAS firms, which now include Airbus U.S. Space and Defense, will have a major role to play in the effort.

It’s unclear exactly what kind of UAVs Airbus’ latest vertical will develop. But the phrasing in last week’s announcement may provide some clues.

“Today’s threat landscape is dominated not only by manned aircraft and expensive defense systems but also by swarms of unmanned systems of varying shapes, sizes, autonomy and operational capabilities,” the announcement read. “The DOD has consequently shifted to new and additional ways to outpace the threat, including scaling uncrewed systems and platforms that can track, detect, and counter today’s threats, while posturing for further advances in this technology.”

The new UAS business builds on the success of Zephyr, a solar-powered, fixed-wing UAS that flies in the stratosphere. Zephyr has spent more than 100 days in that layer of the atmosphere, shattering several uncrewed altitude and endurance records in the process.

Many of those came during a 2022 flight spanning more than 30,000 nm—long enough to lap the Earth and then some. That trip lasted 64 days and allowed Zephyr to rack up 1,500 consecutive hours flying above 60,000 feet, doubling its own record for the longest UAV flight. 

In fact, the aircraft came just a few hours shy of setting the record for the longest flight of any kind. Incredibly, that honor is held by a pair of pilots who flew a Cessna 172 Skyhawk for 64 days and 22 hours straight—all the way back in 1959.

“The future battlespace is here, and our team is ensuring the warfighter is equipped with technology that allows them to make informed decisions to counter the threat,” said Rob Geckle, chairman and CEO of Airbus U.S. Space and Defense. “And while the Zephyr stratospheric platform is our foundational UAS program, we envision multiple UAS solutions supporting a range of customer missions and operational needs.”

Beyond Zephyr, Airbus U.S. Space and Defense also produces the Eurodrone for European ISR missions, the Aliaca for deployment from Naval ships, and the uncrewed, multimission VSR700 helicopter. It also offers UAS services such as the DeckFinder local positioning system and manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T), a software that connects UAVs and allows them to serve as force multipliers for crewed aircraft.

If Thursday’s announcement is any indication, though, those aircraft are only the tip of the iceberg.

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There is no indication the crash was caused by enemy or hostile actions, the Department of Defense (DOD) said. 

“The MH-60 Blackhawk was conducting aerial refueling training when the aircraft experienced an in-flight emergency resulting in the crash,” DOD said Monday.

Immediately following the mishap, a search and rescue mission was launched and included U.S. military aircraft and ships, U.S. European Command said.

The soldiers were based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, The Tennessean reported.

“We mourn the tragic loss of five U.S. service members during a training accident in the Mediterranean Sea early Saturday morning,” Defense secretary Lloyd Austin said. “While we continue to gather more information about this deadly crash, it is another stark reminder that the brave men and women who defend our great nation put their lives on the line each and every day to keep our country safe. They represent the best of America. We will remember their service and their sacrifice.”  

Defense officials identified those killed as Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stephen R. Dwyer, 38, of Clarksville, Tennessee; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Shane M. Barnes, 34, of Sacramento, California; Staff Sergeant Tanner W. Grone, 26, of Gorham, New Hampshire; Sergeant Andrew P. Southard, 27, of Apache Junction, Arizona; and Sergeant Cade M. Wolfe, 24, of Mankato, Minnesota.

The U.S. Army’s Combat Readiness Center is conducting an investigation into the incident, DOD said.

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The idea of introducing a helicopter to the Cessna product line began to gain traction in the early 1950s. This was a time when the company’s fixed-wing offerings were relatively modest but were on the brink of massive expansion. The lineup in the early part of the decade consisted of the 120/140, 170, 180, 190/195, O-1, and the 310/320 twins but by the following decade would more than double in size and encompass entirely new categories. A helicopter, Cessna thought, would be one more way to gain market share.

Rather than designing a helicopter from the ground up, Cessna went shopping for existing options. Its search eventually took it to the Seibel Helicopter Co., conveniently located on the other side of Wichita, Kansas. In 1952, Cessna acquired Seibel and its S-4B helicopter design, and founder Charles Seibel was retained to lead the engineering team.

The S-4B, while functional, utilized an entirely utilitarian design devoid of any niceties, such as an enclosed fuselage, soundproofing, or a finished interior. Cessna wasted no time replacing the skeletal design with an aluminum monocoque fuselage and cabin that utilized many of the same design principles as its fixed-wing aircraft. Before long, the first CH-1 emerged from the factory and made its first flight in July 1953.

Equipped with its new fuselage that later expanded to incorporate four seats, the CH-1 was sleeker and more modern looking than existing designs, and it was updated beneath the skin, as well. The Siebel’s original 125 hp piston engine was gone and in its place was a far more powerful alternative, ultimately a supercharged 6-cylinder Continental that produced 270 hp. This provided outstanding high-altitude performance, and the CH-1 went on to set several records. In addition to becoming the first helicopter to land on 14,000-foot Pikes Peak in Colorado, it set multiple altitude records by climbing to nearly 30,000 feet.

Cessna’s marketing team pursued both the civilian and military markets, securing a U.S. Army contract for 10 examples that would become known as the YH-41 Seneca. The Army was ultimately unimpressed with the helicopter’s performance, and Cessna bought back six, modifying some systems and converting them to civilian models. 

The company had better luck with the civil model, pursuing the short-range executive market as well as the utility helicopter market. In many respects, the CH-1 was impressive. The cabin was massive, enabling passengers to easily move from one seat to another in flight. At 64 inches wide, it was within 2 inches of a Citation Excel business jet and incorporated 360-degree panoramic visibility.

Unfortunately, the CH-1 was hobbled by several issues that ultimately proved insurmountable. Engine and transmission reliability reportedly was well below par for the market, reflected by the woefully short engine TBO of only 600 hours. This was a fraction of comparable helicopter engines and would have increased hourly operating costs noticeably.

Additionally, the CH-1 was quite expensive to purchase. In 1960, the CH-1C was offered for $79,960. The 1965 pricing for the Bell 47J and Brantley 305 was $67,000 and $54,000, respectively. While Cessna could justify a higher price for the nicer cabin and better high-altitude performance, it perhaps realized it would struggle to make a case against small turbine helicopters that would soon enter the market. Indeed, Hughes priced the 500 at $95,000 nine years later. 

Faced with reliability concerns and diminishing marketability, Cessna ended the CH-1 program and bought back nearly every example for scrapping, presumably to eliminate any product liability concerns. Today, of the 50 examples built, only one survives—a lone YH-41A Seneca in storage and awaiting restoration at the United States Army Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker, Alabama.

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That’s the mission of hybrid electric propulsion systems provider Ampaire, which last week announced the acquisition of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturer Talyn Air in a bid to enter the defense, drone, and VTOL markets.

The companies chose not to disclose the terms of the deal. But Ampaire said it will inherit “substantially all of the assets of Talyn,” which include trade secrets, patents, and, perhaps most importantly, seven defense contracts for which it has sole-source follow-on rights.

 Talyn co-founders Jamie Gull and Evan Mucasey will stay on with Ampaire as advisers.

“[Hybrid electric propulsion is] a small industry of people who have very aligned visions for the future, who are trying to take this novel technology set and apply it in meaningful and exciting ways to do something really good for the world,” Kevin Noertker, co-founder and CEO of Ampaire, told FLYING. “That is a core alignment between the organizations and has been for the last four years as we’ve been building companies side by side.”

Provider of Choice

Launched seven years ago in a suburb of Los Angeles, Ampaire has enjoyed a relationship with Talyn since its founding in 2019, when the eVTOL maker was still in the Y Combinator startup accelerator. During that time, Noertker became friendly with Gull, and the two still talk frequently.

Having now flown 19,000 miles with its hybrid electric systems, Ampaire has no plans to build its own aircraft with Talyn’s technology. Rather, it plans to leverage the patents and contracts it acquired to add its systems to VTOL aircraft, in addition to the Cessna and de Havilland aircraft it already retrofits.

Noertker anticipates a large hybrid electric market developing for VTOL, an industry that already features several decarbonized players. His hope is for Ampaire to become the go-to propulsion systems firm for both conventional and emerging aircraft.

“This is about positioning Ampaire so that we are the provider of choice across all of those,” he said.

That wasn’t always the plan. According to Noertker, Ampaire at first had eyes only for conventional takeoff and landing models. That market, he thought, would drive more customers to the company.

“And frankly, I think that’s the strongest way to decarbonize the breadth of aviation, which is at the core of what we want to do,” he said.

However, as the years passed and VTOL innovation skyrocketed, Noertker now believes a handful of markets are ripe for VTOL operations. Though he anticipates passenger services will remain niche for the next few years, he sees applications for defense and cargo delivery in the near term.

“I definitely think eVTOL is there and will endure as a meaningful segment to the industry, which is partially why we’re so excited about this opportunity here,” Noertker said.

Since VTOL is still a niche market, Ampaire’s near-term focus will continue to be conventional aircraft. But the company plans to begin tapping into the VTOL market by leveraging Talyn’s assets in more ways than one.

Patents Present New Pathways

Ampaire received a heap of intellectual property in the deal, including trade secrets, engineering strategies, and other internal data. But the most intriguing acquisition is that of Talyn’s seven patents.

Noertker wouldn’t get into specifics, but the patents cover two main categories: the staged architecture of Talyn’s eVTOL and in-air recharging.

Unique among eVTOL manufacturers, Talyn’s design is akin to Virgin Galactic’s space tourism service, which uses a lift vehicle to ferry a second vehicle containing passengers to a launch point 45,000 feet off the ground. 

Talyn doesn’t quite reach those heights. But the architecture is similar: A wheeled lift vehicle launches vertically, bringing a second cruise vehicle into the sky with it. In the air, the two separate, and the cruise vehicle flies on its own. Then, while still airborne, it can pair up with another lift vehicle, attach itself autonomously, and hover back to the ground.

According to Noertker, Ampaire already has several customers interested in Talyn’s lift architecture, which could one day be used as a launch platform for other eVTOL aircraft. That is not yet the company’s focus, but the lift vehicle adds another potential layer of infrastructure for electric aviation.

Similarly, Noertker views in-air charging as a “frontier opportunity.” He doesn’t expect that feature to appear in the firm’s commercially available Eco Caravan. Before that happens, Ampaire needs to electrify more aircraft.

But the company may soon begin exploring the ability to install charging systems on board aircraft. Like Talyn’s launch platform, Noertker believes in-air charging could be part of the “next generation of functionality” in aviation, another piece of infrastructure for Ampaire to pursue as the industry decarbonizes.

A Growing Collection of Contracts

Since its founding, much of Talyn’s work has come in the form of defense contracts, and Ampaire will inherit seven of them.

Among others, Talyn contracted with the Naval Air Systems Command, the U.S. Air Force’s 621st Contingency Response Wing, and AFWERX, demonstrating launch, release, and close formation flight with a 12-foot subscale prototype of its two-segment eVTOL.

But per Noertker, one of Ampaire’s first tasks following the deal will be applying its hybrid electric systems to Talyn’s aircraft as part of a program with NASA. 

Another key acquisition will be the Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) contract Talyn had with AFWERX’s Agility Prime, the vertical lift division of the Air Force’s innovation arm. Talyn has already built an airframe for those trials and is adding onboard propulsion systems to initiate ground testing. Ampaire will take over when flight testing begins.

Despite his technology trading hands, Talyn CEO Gull is optimistic about the future of the company’s design. Gull continues to see interesting applications for the eVTOL, particularly in the defense space, and he believes Ampaire will carry the torch.

“Evan [Mucasey] and I started the company four years ago and worked really hard in getting this to where it was, getting U.S. government contracts, getting aircraft up flying at some scale, and building this big airframe,” Gull told FLYING. “We’re both stoked to see this continue on with Ampaire.”

Since Ampaire will continue to prioritize conventional aircraft, it may take awhile for Gull to see his aspirations come to fruition. But the deal clearly signals the company’s ambition to expand into markets such as VTOL, which may spend the next decade in infancy.

“What we’re doing is we’re repowering aviation,” Noertker said. “All of it—both the stuff that exists and the stuff that does not yet exist.”

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Recently, drones have dominated coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war, epitomized by last week’s media storm around Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow and the Kremlin. We take those capabilities for granted today—they’re just a feature of war. But plenty of active service members were alive during a time when today’s UAVs were inconceivable.

So, how did we get here? Believe it or not, drones as we know them right now actually originated more than a century ago during World War I and World War II. They certainly weren’t pretty. But for better or worse, war breeds innovation, and those wars laid the groundwork for today’s UAV technology.

Let’s take a look at some of those early drones and how they morphed into the high-flying, supersonic, undetectable UAVs permeating the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Prewar Foundations

Before diving into the history books, we need to define what a drone is. For our purposes, we’ll be using a simple definition: a drone or UAV is any aircraft that does not have a human crew or pilot on board.

That includes balloons, which were responsible for the earliest unmanned flights. The ancient Chinese used sky balloons, or Kongming lanterns—now a symbol in Chinese culture—for military signaling. A few centuries later, the first hot-air balloon designed to carry people, developed by aviation pioneers the Montgolfier brothers, flew without a crew in 1783.

But it wasn’t until the mid-19th century that the first UAV was deployed in combat. That distinction belongs to the Austrians, who in 1849 bombed Venice, Italy, using explosive-laden balloons. Unsurprisingly, they weren’t very effective—many of them even blew back toward Austria due to wind.

Before long, engineers were looking at a new application for UAVs: aerial photography. 

The first surveillance drones didn’t emerge until the Vietnam War. But in 1858, French photographer Nadar was credited with taking the first photos from a balloon. A few decades later, William Abner Eddy took photos from a flying kite, some of which survived. And around the same time, Alfred Nobel was thought to have taken photos from a “rocket camera,” though the history is disputed.

Yet all of these aircraft had a big problem: They were difficult or impossible to control. Nikola Tesla began laying the foundation for radio-controlled vehicles with his “robot-boat” in 1898. A technological marvel for its time, Tesla reportedly fooled a crowd at New York City’s Madison Square Garden into thinking they could control the vehicle by shouting.

Tesla never built a remote-control system for flight. But leading up to WWI, Britain’s Royal Aircraft Factory recognized the potential for radio-guided combat aircraft—and got to work.

WWI and the 1st UAV

The task of developing a radio-controlled airplane was left up to A.M. Low, an English engineer, physicist, and inventor commissioned by Britain’s Royal Flying Corps in 1914, just more than a decade after the Wright Brothers’ first flight.

Considered by some to be “the father of radio guidance systems,” Low in 1916 developed a design called the Aerial Target (AT) that laid the foundation for drones as we know them today. The following year, a monoplane made by Geoffrey de Havilland—who would go on to found the aircraft manufacturer sharing his last name—became the first AT model to fly under radio control. It was considered the first UAV flight.

While working on AT, Low survived two assassination attempts by the Germans, who saw the danger in his invention. The British military, however, eventually scrapped the program. Low later developed remote-controlled boats to counter submarines, though they were never deployed in war.

The U.S. also took notice of Low. In 1917, at the behest of scientist-inventors Peter Hewitt and Elmer Sperry, the Navy began developing the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, or “Flying Bomb,” considered to be the earliest iteration of the modern cruise missile. It was made by attaching automatic control gear to the Curtiss N-9 seaplane and eventually, after failed tests, a custom Curtiss airframe.

Launched from a catapult—and later a car—and controlled through gyro-stabilization technology created by Sperry, the aircraft never saw battle. But the U.S. military now had UAVs on its mind.

Around the time the Flying Bomb was undergoing flight testing, the U.S. Army asked inventor and engineer Charles Kettering to design a “flying machine” that could hit targets from 40 miles away.

His design, the Kettering Aerial Torpedo—better known as the “Kettering Bug”—was groundbreaking despite never seeing combat. It was capable of carrying 180 pounds of explosives over 75 miles at a speed of 50 mph, making it an enigma of its time.

Using a guidance and control system developed by Sperry, the Bug was programmed to turn off its engine after a specified number of revolutions corresponding to the distance it needed to travel, improving its accuracy. That resulted in several successful flight tests in 1918, and the U.S. government would ultimately spend $275,000 (or about $4 million today) developing it.

The Bug and its predecessors ultimately never saw battle. But Kettering’s design and others would later inspire the UAVs deployed during WWII.

The Interwar Period

The Allies didn’t need drones to win World War I. But the early glimpses of UAV technology were too tantalizing to ignore, and the interwar period brought plenty of new innovations that have stuck around.

One is the quadcopter design, a common feature of modern drones. The first practical quadcopter design arrived in 1924, when French engineer Étienne Oehmichen flew his Oehmichen 2. Around the same time, George de Bothezat successfully flew a quadrotor helicopter for the U.S. Army.

But the bulk of UAV innovation at this time came from the British and American militaries. 

Drawing upon Kettering’s Bug and Low’s radio-control technology, the British Royal Aircraft Establishment began building the Larynx autopilot cruise missile in 1925, conducting test flights between 1927 and 1929. Britain also developed the Fairey Queen, a radio-controlled target drone constructed from a Fairey IIIF floatplane, in 1931. Only three were ever flown.

But one British innovation from this period had staying power. In 1933, the country started building the DH.82B Queen Bee, a pilotless variant of de Havilland’s Tiger Moth biplane that revolutionized military target practice. The Queen Bee began flying remotely in 1935 and was in service with the Royal Air Force and Navy until 1947. Remarkably, it could fly as high as 17,000 feet and as fast as 100 mph, and it could be recovered after flight. More than 400 were built over a decade.

But perhaps the Queen Bee’s longest-lasting impact comes from its name. Historians believe that when the British demonstrated it for the U.S. military, officials began using the word drone—a term for worker bees—to refer to UAVs as a tip of the hat. But more importantly, Queen Bee is thought to have inspired the first American drone program.

U.S. experiments eventually produced the Curtiss N2C-2 antiaircraft target drone in 1937. Controlled remotely from a TG-2 “mothership,” the N2C-2 entered Navy service in 1938, and the Air Force adopted the concept the following year. The technology was ideal for target practice, but the requirement of a mothership limited its range and applications.

The Queen Bee and N2C-2 were the first UAVs to see extensive military use. And they arrived just in time for World War II, when drones really started to take off.

WWII and the First Mass-Produced UAVs

A couple hundred Queen Bees and a few thousand N2C-2 variants flew as target drones during World War II. But the conflict, the largest the world had ever seen, triggered the proliferation of UAVs.

The first mass-produced drone emerged from an unlikely source: actor Reginald Denny, a successful Hollywood leading man who experimented with radio-controlled aviation in the 1930s. Throughout the decade, Denny’s Radioplane Co. demonstrated several target drones for the U.S. Army.

In 1940, Denny’s persistence won Radioplane an Army contract to mass-produce the Radioplane OQ-2 and its successor, the OQ-3. The company would go on to build an astounding 15,000 target drones for the Army during WWII, marking the beginning of heavy military drone use. And in 1941, a patent filed by engineer Edward M. Sorensen allowed the aircraft to complete the first beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights.

If Britain was the driving force behind UAV innovation during WWI, it was the U.S. in WWII. 

In 1942, the U.S. military developed an early assault drone, the Naval Aircraft Factory TDN-1, which did not see operation but is credited as the first drone to take off from an aircraft carrier. Shortly after, it devised the Interstate TDR-1 assault drone, which saw about a month of deployment in the Pacific Theater before being retired in 1944.

The U.S. also experimented with applying radio control to out-of-service aircraft. In 1944, Operation Aphrodite saw the Army Air Forces repurpose the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated B-24 Liberator for remote flight. These designs were also the first UAVs equipped with cameras for first-person-view flights.

Despite flying 14 missions, Aphrodite was considered a failure. The drones were essentially torpedoes equipped with explosives, requiring the pilot to jump from the aircraft before impact. One mission led to the death of Joseph P. Kennedy, the older brother of John F. Kennedy.

However, the U.S. did find success with one of the earliest combat drones, the GB-1 glide bomb. Also known as the “grapefruit bomb,” the aircraft’s wings allowed it to glide farther than a torpedo, which allowed bombers to release it from outside enemy lines. More than 1,000 GB-1s flew during WWII in 1944 and 1945.

But ironically, a U.S. invention inspired the Germans to build the most devastating UAV of the time. Remember that old Kettering Bug? Well, the Germans certainly did, adapting the model into what would become the V-1 flying bomb, commonly known as the “doodlebug” or “buzz bomb.”

The V-1 is considered to be the first operational cruise missile, and it was unlike anything the world had ever seen. It was a true monstrosity of its time, capable of traveling more than 150 miles at speeds approaching 400 mph—not far off from modern passenger airliners.

At the height of the V-1’s deployment in 1944, Germany riddled London with bombs, launching more than 100 drones per day, before switching its sights to Belgium. The flying bomb was remarkably effective for its time, so much so that it inspired the British to produce some of the earliest counter-UAV technology.

Near the end of the war, the Germans also introduced the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile, the V-2 rocket. Amazingly, the V-2 traveled close to the speed of sound, making it stealthier and even more dangerous than the V-1. More than 3,000 were launched between 1943 and 1945.

The vast majority of these aircraft were retired in the years after the war. But the damage was already done—the Germans had just provided the first glimpse into the power of combat drones, and there was no turning back.

Through decades of trial and error and the modern-day equivalent of billions of dollars, WWI and WWII produced most of the foundational concepts of drones as we know them today, from remote-control to BVLOS operations.

In the following decades, research and development of UAV technology didn’t subside—it picked up exponentially. Around the world, militaries began contracting with private manufacturers, conducting extensive testing, and pouring billions of dollars into drone technology, introducing new innovations such as surveillance drones during the Vietnam War or precision drone strikes throughout the war on terror.

Now, they’re being used for just about every armed conflict on Earth. And as drones continue to wreak havoc in Russia and Ukraine, chances are they won’t be going away any time soon—for better or worse.

The post How Were Drones Used During WWI and WWII? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.