SkyTote to Demonstrate High-Speed Flight with Vertical Takeoff

US Air Force, WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE: Air Force Research Laboratory scientists are working on a novel unmanned air vehicle called SkyTote that will take off and land vertically like a helicopter, but also transition into horizontal flight like a conventional aircraft. 
 
SkyTote's primary mission is to deliver a payload to a specific point within a tactically relevant range and time. It is a Small Business Innovative Research Phase II effort orchestrated by AeroVironment Inc of Monrovia, Calif., for AFRL's Air Vehicles Directorate. 
 
According to AFRL's Tom Cord, SkyTote program manager, the aircraft is a concept demonstrator and not a working system. 
 
“We are not trying to reach a certain performance and capability; we are trying to show that a hovering UAV with a fast, forward speed is a likelihood. It's something we can do in a simple way,” he said. 
 
Researchers are hopeful that after careful analysis and testing, SkyTote will become a safe, inexpensive and reliable choice for assessing bomb damage and conducting resupply missions or helping with emergency troop evacuations. The SkyTote combines the vertical takeoff, and landing and hover capabilities of helicopters with the high-speed cruise capability of a fixed-wing aircraft. 
 
Counter-rotating rotors with individual cyclic control provide propulsion. Propulsion and transition from wing to propeller flight are some of the major technical challenges in this effort. 
 
Because of the cyclic control, SkyTote looks like a helicopter when it is flying in helicopter mode. When it is flying like an airplane, the helicopter propeller-rotor system functions more like a propeller. 
 
“It's not a great rotor or propeller; it's a good compromise between a helicopter rotor system and an airplane propeller, and that's part of what we are trying to show is that this system will work well for this type of airplane,