Lockheed Martin ups its Fury UAV’s flight endurance
Staff
General Aerospace lockheed martin uavEngineers have upgraded the engine system and project increases in endurance up to 15 continuous hours of flight time.
Lockheed Martin is pushing the limits of their unmanned air vehicle. The Fury is an expeditionary, runway-independent UAV and the global security and aerospace company is expanding the vehicles capabilities by updating the engines.
Lockheed engineers have integrated the 1803 engine into the platform and the new system is performing well in tests. These tests indicated that Fury will be able to stay in the air for 15 continuous hours, making it one of the highest endurance unmanned systems in its class.
“We’ve engineered Fury to bring the flight endurance and other advantages of much larger unmanned aircraft into a compact, effective, category three system,” said Kevin Westfall, director of Unmanned Systems at Lockheed Martin.
Westfall adds that the company plans to invest heavily to mature the capabilities Fury can deliver.
Engineers have designed the Fury for long-endurance, expeditionary flight. It’s capabilities are due to its advanced fuel propulsion system, power generation and low signature design to deliver capabilities to Class 3 UAV that were previously only available in larger and more complex systems.
One of the interesting features of the vehicle is that it operates without landing gear, making it truly runway-independent UAV in its class on the market today. The complete Fury launch and recovery element can be set up on unimproved ground, in an areas a small as 200 feet square.
Leveraging open architecture design, Fury is both adaptable and reconfigurable to serve a multitude of military missions – including intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and cyber-electronic warfare.
