Jungle Hawk Owl, a communication assistance unmanned aerial vehicle for gasoline power capable of flying without refueling for up to five days

The US military is planning to provide an emergency communication environment to unexplained areas where communication became impossible due to natural disasters and other unmanned aircraft. Students at MIT were able to fly with gasoline at the request of the US military for up to five days as a propeller aircraft "Jungle Hawk OwlIt is under development.

Engineers design drones that can stay aloft for five days | MIT News
http://news.mit.edu/2017/drones-stay-aloft-five-days-0607

The state of the flight test of Jungle Hawk Owl can be confirmed in the following movie.

Jungle Hawk Owl first flight - YouTube


Plum Island Airport in Newbury, Massachusetts.


The aircraft on the roof of the car is a prototype of Jungle Hawk Owl. The wings are said to be 24 feet (about 7.3 meters).


Forcibly turning the propeller, the 5 horsepower engine started.


With the Jungle Hawk Owl loaded, the car is on the runway.


The running speed of the car rises ...


Jungle Hawk Owl took off quickly.


As you can see in the movie, Jungle Hawk Owl flew away considerably momentum.


Jungle Hawk Owl controlled from the ground is dancing in the sky.


In addition, Jungle Hawk Owl is required to deliver communications from the sky above 15,000 feet (approximately 4.6 kilometers) with a communication device weighing 10 to 20 pounds (about 4.5 kilograms to 9 kilograms).


In the test flight, we restrained the payload under the FAA regulations, and the weight limit of less than the total weight of 55 pounds (about 25 kilograms) was imposed. Jungle Hawk Owl returns to the runway after the flight test ......


Successful landing succeeded.


A great cheer came out from those who watched the test flight.


Jungle Hawk Owl is being developed as a communication drone for the disaster when the US military is studying. It has the same purpose as Google and Facebook developed for the purpose of delivering communications from the sky in an emergency to a place where communication environment was lost due to natural disasters. However, in the case of an unmanned aircraft (UAV) that the US military is using in military operations, the continuous flight time was one or two days, and an aircraft capable of a longer flight was sought.

At the request of the US military, MIT's Beaver Works lab modeled the aircraft using GPkit, and in the initially planned drone flying with solar power generation, the sunshine time is reduced to get away from the equator, the electricity generation in winter It seems that it has been found that it is not suitable for disaster relief purposes because there are problems such as a large decrease in efficiency. Ultimately, researchers at MIT arrived at an orthodox approach of installing a small gasoline engine and "Jungle Hawk Owl" was born.

MIT considers Jungle Hawk Owl to be applicable not only to disaster support but also to other uses such as environmental monitoring, and aims to put it into practical use within several years.