The Airboxer is a long range unmanned helicopter with a three-blade single rotor. Because of its size, weight and capabilities, it creates a class on its own and brings industrial reliability into the UAV market in an unprecedented small size

Multi-Mission Capability

The combination of combustion engine technology, military grade communications equipment and clever design, make the Airboxer a real performer. It will come to its right within the widest variety of missions, be it long-range night-ops from a tactical vessel, to elaborate wild-life research mission in arctic regions. Its strength lies in the combination of long-endurance multi-sensor capability and the capability to operate basically from any area in the world – without additional hardware.

Endurance, Weight and Altitude

Taking ISA sea level conditions as the frame of reference, the Airboxer will lift payloads of 7.0 kilograms for several hours, at sea level. In the same environmental circumstances, it will be able to fly in excess of three hours at a speed of 30 knots with a payload of 5.0 kilograms, or accelerate onwards all the way up to 70 knots. The maximum take-off weight of the aircraft at sea level is 32.0 kilograms and is gradually reduced up to the rated service ceiling, at a density altitude of 10,000 feet.

Fuel Range and Radio Range

Any helicopter will see an improvement in fuel economy at a certain speed, the Airboxer will achieve its maximum range and endurance at a speed of 30 knots. At this speed it will be able to cover in excess of 180 kilometers on one fuel tank with a medium payload capacity. The primary communications data-link provides bandwidths in excess of 45 Mbit/s, and will still be able to achieve 10 Mbit/s at a clear line-of-sight range of more than 50 kilometers, retaining full high-definition video

Environmental Capabilities

The Airboxer’s flight control design and powerplant configuration allow the helicopter to be operated in a wide variety of environmental conditions. Standard operations are allowed in temperatures down to -20 degrees Celcius, up to 45 degrees Celcius and at a humidity of 95%. The UAV tolerates winds up to 25 knots for take-off and landing and moderate levels of rain, snow and hail. Electro magnetic interference has been demonstrated to pose no risk to the Airboxer at frequencies of 1 MHz to 18 GHz and field strengths of 200 V/m. When operating from a ship, roll and pitch angles of the deck are allowed up to 8 degrees and sea state 5 in standard operations.

Autonomy and Flight Modes

To adapt the system to ever-changing mission requirements, a variety of flight modes can be used to operate the Airboxer. All flight modes can be activated or changed at any time during flight. The autopilot provides both semi- and fully automatic flight modes, including multi waypoint following capability, automatic take-offs and landings and clearly defined back-up modes. The Airboxer can also automatically take-off and land on a moving ship, or follow a ship in a configurable orientation as it sails or changes course. In the event of a full loss of the redundant communication, the UAV is capable of following pre-determined routes, waypoints and altitudes, to bring it to an area which has been designated for the following automatic landing. Automatic navigation is made possible through a combination of barometric, magnetic and GPS based external inputs, and can be sustained at high accuracy when an input is lost. Multiple sensory failure leads to pre-defined flight modes which allow safe retrieval of the helicopter.