Ascent AeroSystems, the Massachusetts-based manufacturer of compact, all-weather, high-performance coaxial unmanned aerial systems, stands ready to avail itself of opportunities likely to be presented by the inchoate, drone-delivery industry.
The company’s Spirit and NX30 models offer operators compact cylindrical forms that reduce airframe mass and aerodynamic cross-section, thereby allowing the vehicles to undertake flight-operations in relatively high-winds. The design also facilitates easier storage, launch, recovery and reset. Such features will prove advantageous as the prevalence of digital commerce, density of UAV air-traffic, and automation of UAV networks contemporaneously increase.
Launched in 2020, Spirit is a robust, dual-payload vehicle Ascent AeroSystems designed to accommodate the demanding mission requirements of military, public safety, and intelligence community customers.
The NX30 shares Spirit’s cylindrical core/coaxial-rotor architecture, but is optimized for material transport in real-world operating environments. The vehicle offers an outstanding combination of speed, range, endurance, and payload capacity.
Configured with a single battery, the NX30 can carry a 15.3-pound payload. Operating on two batteries, the vehicle manages an impressive 65-minute (+5-minute reserve) flight-time, a 65-mph top speed, and a wind-limitation of forty-miles per hour. Maintaining a more leisurely, best-endurance speed of 45-mph, the NX30 can traverse 35-miles [17-mile operating radius]—which amounts to an operational service area of 1,800 square-miles.
A typical mission might see the NX30 carry a five-pound payload twelve-miles and back again in any weather (the vehicle is IP56 rated), without touching its power reserve. The NX30 can be configured to suit a wide range of delivery operations, including specific payload dimensions, performance, communications equipment, even package delivery methods. Initial deliveries to an undisclosed customer occurred in December of 2021.
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