New partnership targets VTOL UAS market
A new partnership between Hankuk Carbon of Korea and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) will target the development and manufacture of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAS.
The companies have signed a memorandum of agreement to establish a joint venture for the work, under which both companies will co-develop and co-manufacture a VTOL UAS in the 200-300kg category.
According to IAI the UAS will ‘target 90% of domestic localisation’ and will be developed to meet an unspecified Republic of Korea customer’s needs
Down the line the companies expect to consider adding ship borne take-off and landing capability to the FE-Panther. This activity will be conducted by the joint venture by the end of 2018.
In October 2015, Hankuk Carbon displayed the 67kg-Hybrid VTOL UAV, FE-Panther for the first time. The UAV, powered by lithium polymer batteries and a gasoline engine, has an endurance of 8 hours flight time with 6kg of payload. It can fly a maximum radius 130km at a maximum speed of 100km/h.
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