{"id":28633,"date":"2016-08-03T14:16:49","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T21:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/the-quadrkt-is-half-quadcopter-half-missile-and-built-for-speed"},"modified":"2017-06-04T10:01:18","modified_gmt":"2017-06-04T17:01:18","slug":"the-quadrkt-is-half-quadcopter-half-missile-and-built-for-speed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/the-quadrkt-is-half-quadcopter-half-missile-and-built-for-speed","title":{"rendered":"The QuadRKT is half-quadcopter, half-missile, and built for speed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iD3MuG3zBIA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Half quad-copter and 1\/2 missile.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>The design of small UAVs usually falls into one of two categories: the cruciform quadcopter (with extra arms added as necessary) and the fixed-wing glider (such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2016\/1\/27\/10852786\/google-project-wing-drone-delivery-robots-patent\">early iterations<\/a> of Google\u2019s delivery drones). However, there\u2019s still room for innovation in this market, as demonstrated by the QuadRKT: a quadcopter drone with a rocket-shaped fuselage that can hovers vertically, but also switch to a horizontal orientation when it needs to go really fast.<\/p>\n<p>The QuadRKT\u2019s basic design has been around for a few years, but its creators are now looking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/384384916\/quadrkt-the-future-of-drone-racing?ref=email\">raise funds on Kickstarter<\/a> for further development. The team originally developed prototypes of the design (then known as the XQ-139 family of aircraft) for DARPA\u2019s Experimental Vertical Takeoff and Landing program. The US agency reportedly declared the QuadRKT \u201ctoo risky\u201d to build, and the drone\u2019s creators \u2014 a team of engineering and aerospace experts \u2014 are now trying to make their design a commercial reality by themselves.<\/p>\n<p>There are a lot of big claims being made by QuadRKT, particularly that the design has the \u201clowest drag coefficient of any quadcopter out there\u201d and that the smallest model has set unofficial speed records of 133 miles per hour. That\u2019s certainly faster than some of the speediest custom-built quadcopters we\u2019ve seen (these can <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/drone360\/2015\/05\/01\/fastest-quadcopter\/\">reportedly reach speeds<\/a> of around 86 mph), but it\u2019s worth remembering that these claims are unverified. It\u2019s also disappointing that QuadRKT\u2019s videos never seem to show the craft in sustained horizontal flight, or its maneuverability \u2014 how it handles turns, loops, at high speed.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theverge.com\/circuitbreaker\/2016\/8\/3\/12366546\/quad-rocket-drone-quadcopter\">http:\/\/www.theverge.com\/circuitbreaker\/2016\/8\/3\/12366546\/qua...quadcopter<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Half quad-copter and 1\/2 missile. The design of small UAVs usually falls into one of two categories: the cruciform quadcopter (with extra arms added as necessary) and the fixed-wing glider (such as early iterations of Google\u2019s delivery drones). However, there\u2019s still room for innovation in this market, as demonstrated by the QuadRKT: a quadcopter drone [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":395,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1488,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drones","category-engineering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28633"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60924,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28633\/revisions\/60924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}