General Description

AirSniper is a VTOL mini-UAV that can be equipped with a rifle and used by infantry for "close air support" or by police for SWAT operations.

It can operate either as an autonomous UAV, or it can be controlled remotely as a stand-off weapon.

The air-vehicle is based on our patent pending "tilt and stop" rotor design concept, which gives AirSniper hovering performance and agility of helicopters, with speed and endurance of fixed wing airplanes. And the quad rotors give it superb attitude control capability for precise aiming and target tracking at any flight speed.

The whole system with GCS weighs less than 35 lbs, can easily fit in a standard infantry back-pack, and is as simple to use as a computer game.

Key Features

Unattended autonomous Vertical TakeOff & Landing

AirSniper can be "parked" in a remote location for extended period of time. Upon command from a remote operator it can then autonomously execute take-off and follow an up-linked or preprogrammed flight path.

This can be done either from horizontal position in a space ~ 2 x 3 m (~ 7' x 10'), or from vertical position in a space ~1.5 x 3 m (~5' x 10').

No catapult, parachute, or other launch/recovery device is needed.*

*Support rod is needed for take-off in vertical position.

Tilting rotors

Like V-22 Osprey, AirSniper is a "tilt-rotor" with ability to convert from rotor supported flight ("helicopter" mode) to wing supported flight ("airplane" mode).

In helicopter mode, the low rotor disc loading provides for efficient flight with agility and endurance (>1 hour in hover) superior to that of ducted fan VTOL UAVs.

In airplane mode, AirSniper main rotors are feathered in fixed position behind the wings (unlike conventional tilt-rotor), where they act as additional lifting surfaces. This increases the effective wingspan and aspect ratio and gives the vehicle glider-like performance with excellent endurance (>4 hours) and range (>500 km).

Unprecedented attitude control

In any flight mode, each rotor or wing/canard can tilt/pitch independently and without limits, which gives the vehicle an unparalleled attitude control.

In practice it means that the fuselage can literally "rotate" in flight around the main rotors and wings. This is utilized, for instance, for the "flip-over" after take-off, or for fuselage attitude stabilization during target tracking while the vehicle moves forward (or even backward) at wide range of flight speeds.

Easy transportability and tool-less assembly

AirSniper system has been designed so it can be easily disassembled and transported in a 0.85 x 0.3 x 0.2 m (33.5” x 12” x 8”) container or a backpack. Assembly or disassembly of the system does not require any tools and takes less than 5 minutes.

Can double as a hand held weapon

Fuselage can contain several types of rifles (see Payloads). When the vehicle is disassembled, the user has an option to put a hand grip on it and use it as a weapon also on ground. Small ammunition magazine used in flight can be replaced on ground with the full size magazine.

Hybrid power

AirSniper is equipped with hybrid power source that consists of:

- brushless electric motors/batteries for quiet flight

- internal combustion engine for endurance and range

Payloads

Please follow this link to Payloads page.

Specifications

Please follow this link to Specifications page.