Drone take off and vertical landing, or VTOL, has several major advantages over other types. There is also a trade-off, the Latvian-made Fixar designed to cope.
The VTOL took off and landed like a helicopter, become even faster and more efficient fixed-wing flight while sailing. This means that they don’t need a runway or launch a slingshot like a fixed-wing drone. They also use less power than the quadcopter in flight forwards – plus they reach their destination faster.
Typically, they have four (or more) horizontally-oriented propeller/motor units to move vertically, along with a vertically-orientated rear prop/motor that pushes the plane forward while sailing. However, once the drone enters a fixed-wing mode, all four vertical buffers are turned off, becoming dead weight and creating an aerodynamic style.
One alternative is to use electrically angled propellers from horizontal to vertical orientation, even though this adds to the mechanical complexity, weight, and power usage. Instead, four Fixar mounts/motors are mounted onto a frame that swings forward and backward relative to the rest of the drone.
When taking off and landing, the skeleton sits horizontally parallel to the fuselage, enabling it to function as a quadcopter. However, it is time to fix the wings, the torque decreases in the front of buffer, and increases in the rear buffer. This causes the tilted frame to be passively forward and the attached propeller now sit vertically to the entire drone.
Consequently, only four (as opposed to five) propeller is needed, none of them is silent at all times, and no servos are required to tilt it. And because Fixar wings provide lift while moving, the motor does not need to work as hard as it is in the quadcopter when in the flight ahead.
We actually saw the same system before, in the Vogi Coriolis G drone, although it used more complex relationship settings.
Fixar’s representatives told us that their company drones had a maximum flight time is up to one hour, a top speed of 72 km/h (45 mph), a payload capacity of 2 kg (4.4 lb), and fully capable of autonomous aviation. The Price is about US $20,000.
And as an interesting addition note, the drone was recently approved by Canada Transport for further operations in the country.
