Sabrewing Aircraft Company, Inc. announced today that its\nRH-1-A \u201cRhaegal\u201d (pronounced \u201cRye-gull\u201d) VTOL air cargo drone had achieved its\nfirst hover flight while lifting a record-setting payload. This pre-production\nair vehicle, also known as the RG-1-A \u201cAlpha\u201d model, was able to lift a\nrecord-breaking 829-pound (374 kg) payload, shattering the previous world\nrecord for the \u201cdead-lift\u201d of any commercial, vertical takeoff, uncrewed air\nvehicle (UAV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Rhaegal \u201cAlpha\u201d aircraft is the world\u2019s first autonomous\ncargo aircraft capable of both vertical and conventional take-off and is\ndesigned to take tons of cargo to any location on Earth, in almost any weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are extremely proud to have accomplished this\nmilestone,\u201d stated Ed De Reyes, chairman and CEO of Sabrewing. \u201cIt\u2019s been a\nlong journey to get here, but we were unwilling to compromise safety or design.\nOur design and tests teams\u2014and our development partners\u2014invested tens of\nthousands of hours to make this milestone such a history-making success,\u201d De\nReyes added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vast improvements to the blades, ducts, and shape of the\nshroud of the aircraft\u2019s ducted fans allowed each duct to produce 30% more\nthrust than it was originally designed to provide. These improvements\ncontributed to the aircraft\u2019s ability to lift the record-shattering payload.\nThe pre-production prototype aircraft weighed just over 2,700 pounds (1,225 kg)\nfor the first flight and is capable of a maximum gross weight (with payload) of\nup to 3,100 pounds (1,406 kg) at altitudes up to 22,000 feet (6700 meters) and\n200 knots. When taking off conventionally, this aircraft has enough thrust to\ncarry over 2 tons of cargo with the same range, altitude, speed, and\nefficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is only a fraction of what this aircraft can carry.\nBut it proves that we\u2019re able to lift more cargo on our maiden flight than any\nprevious cargo UAV that has ever flown,\u201d said De Reyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Rhaegal aircraft uses a turbo-electric drivetrain based\non Safran\u2019s Helicopter Engines turbine-based motor, the Ariel 2E. The Ariel can\nuse 50% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and turns an electric generator which\nproduces nearly 1 megawatt of electric energy which in turn then powers\nelectric motors in each of the four ducted fans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re able to generate more propulsive energy \u2013 much more\nefficiently \u2013 with a turbo-electric drivetrain and ducted fans than with\nbatteries or directly driven by the turbine,\u201d said Oliver Garrow, Chief\nTechnology Officer for Sabrewing. \u201cThe Safran motor is currently cleared to use\n50% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). We expect to be one of the first aircraft\nmanufacturers to use hydrogen when Safran completes testing on their motor in\nthe next couple of years,\u201d Garrow stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The aircraft was developed in partnership with Safran\n(turboshaft motors), Leonardo Aerospace (avionics), Toray (composite\nmaterials), Garmin (navigation), Attollo Engineering (LIDAR), Spider Tracks\n(remote positioning), US Cargo Systems (cargo floors) as well as software\ndevelopment by Cal State Channel Islands, The Ohio State University, UCLA and\nOklahoma University. The Rhaegal is the world\u2019s best-in-class, highest fuel and\nmaintenance efficiency cargo UAV on the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Rhaegal RG-1-B \u201cBravo\u201d production aircraft is designed\nfor first, middle and last mile cargo deliveries. It can lift over 10 times\nmore cargo than its closest competitor, fly 5 times farther, and operate in any\nairspace \u2013 from the most congested city to the most remote location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rhaegal is capable of opening new locations and profit\ncenters for its operators, due to its range, fuel efficiency, and ease of\nmaintenance. It is also capable of a range of missions besides heavy lift cargo\n\u2013 including search and rescue, firefighting, disaster relief, medical\ndeliveries (including frozen vaccines), and even fuel and water deliveries.\nWith such a long range and payload capability, both Rhaegal models are\nexcellent for disaster recovery and humanitarian missions \u2013 such as in Ukraine.\nThe Rhaegal \u201cBravo\u201d is the only cargo UAV that is capable of carrying over ten\ndifferent Unit Load Device (ULD) cargo containers \u2013the same kind used by\nairlines for cargo. The Rhaegal can even power refrigerated cargo containers \u2013\nknown as \u201creefers\u201d \u2013 both on the ground and in the air \u2013 and has over 675 cubic\nfeet (19 m3) of cargo space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sabrewing currently has purchase orders for 28 of the\naircraft \u2013 destined for the World Food\/World Health program \u2013 and another 102\nfirm orders, and letters of intent for over 400 aircraft; these orders\nrepresent a $3.2 billion order book over the next 6-7 years. Sabrewing also has\ncontracts with the US Air Force to study the use of autonomous cargo delivery\nto austere environments, and even a demonstration of casualty evacuation for up\nto 8 injured persons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the aircraft nears certification (Sabrewing was the first\nVTOL company to reach a \u2018Basis of Certification\u2019 agreement with the FAA in\nOctober of 2019), Sabrewing has also been working with the European Aviation\nSafety Agency (EASA) to begin certification flight testing of its aircraft. The\nfirst 28 aircraft are due to begin deliveries to the first customer by December\nof 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sabrewing Aircraft Company, Inc. announced today that its RH-1-A \u201cRhaegal\u201d (pronounced \u201cRye-gull\u201d) VTOL air cargo drone had achieved its first hover flight while lifting a record-setting payload. This pre-production air vehicle, also known as the RG-1-A \u201cAlpha\u201d model, was able to lift a record-breaking 829-pound (374 kg) payload, shattering the previous world record for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114,127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news","category-unmanned-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rhaegal-Proto-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23550,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23548\/revisions\/23550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}