Yates
Electrospace Corp. (YEC)
announced Monday they have completed the design and specifications of
a wide-body version of its successful GD-2000 cargo delivery drone.
The company will unveil the drone in July during the Farnborough
International Airshow
in the United Kingdom.
Developed
by YEC based on real-time demand from U.S. and allied foreign
government special operators including the U.S. Army 160th Special
Operations Aviation Regiment, the new wide-body is 60 percent larger
than the standard Silent Arrow GD-2000, with a 140cu/ft cargo bay
that accommodates five times more life-saving supplies, medicines and
tactical cargo.
"The
YEC engineering team used current flight data from the inaugural
GD-2000 product line along with extensive computational fluid
dynamics analysis to optimize the aerodynamics and glide ratio of
this rather massive cargo delivery platform," said Chip
Yates, YEC's founder and CEO, in a company press release. "With
two launch customers on hand, our accelerated schedule delivers
development units by the end of March 2020 and 10 flight
test units throughout the 2nd and
3rd quarters
of 2020.”
A
full scale flight-ready Silent Arrow GD-2000 cargo delivery drone was
unveiled in September at the Defense & Security Equipment
International show in London.
Designed
for immediate air response and emergency relief, Silent Arrow's
tightly integrated packaging with its unique spring-deployed wing
system transported inside the fuselage, high standoff distance and
low cost has received enthusiastic reception from both the tactical
resupply and the humanitarian / disaster relief markets. Silent Arrow
is designed for fixed-wing and rotorcraft deployment of critically
needed supplies, cargo and fuel under austere operating conditions
and timelines.
