{"id":31977,"date":"2016-11-16T21:46:52","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T05:46:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/cormorantairmule-uav-completes-first-autonomous-flight"},"modified":"2017-04-24T19:19:40","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T02:19:40","slug":"cormorantairmule-uav-completes-first-autonomous-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/cormorantairmule-uav-completes-first-autonomous-flight","title":{"rendered":"Cormorant\/AirMule UAV completes first autonomous flight"},"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\/PByFlMyAYpg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A lot has happened since we first heard about the AirMule, a prototype VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) aircraft that features internal rotor blades \u2013 these work along <em>with<\/em> the horizontal-thrust ducted fans visible at the rear. First, it made some <a href=\"http:\/\/newatlas.com\/tactical-robotics-airmule-vtol\/30196\/\" target=\"_blank\">tethered autonomous test flights<\/a>. Then, it flew <a href=\"http:\/\/newatlas.com\/airmule-vtol-untethered-flight\/41144\/\" target=\"_blank\">untethered for a short distance<\/a>. Now, known as the Cormorant UAV, it\u2019s made its first full untethered autonomous flight \u2026 although there were a couple of hiccups.<\/p>\n<p>Designed by Israeli firm Tactical Robotics, the Cormorant is designed to deliver troops, civilian passengers or other cargo within tight quarters where helicopters with exposed rotor blades just can\u2019t go. With the UAV in its name standing for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, the idea is that it will perform these tasks either autonomously or by remote control.<\/p>\n<p>The latest test took place in Israel on Nov. 3rd, lasting only about two minutes and involving low flight over uneven terrain. While the aircraft did successfully demonstrate autonomous flight modes such as takeoff, climb, acceleration, cruise, deceleration, descent, turns, hover and touchdown, it is hoped that subsequent flights will be able to smooth out the transitions between those modes.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"http:\/\/newatlas.com\/airmule-cormorant-autonomous-flight\/46479\/\">http:\/\/newatlas.com\/airmule-cormorant-autonomous-flight\/46479\/<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lot has happened since we first heard about the AirMule, a prototype VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) aircraft that features internal rotor blades \u2013 these work along with the horizontal-thrust ducted fans visible at the rear. First, it made some tethered autonomous test flights. Then, it flew untethered for a short distance. Now, known [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1491],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-robotics-ai","category-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31977","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\/354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38445,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31977\/revisions\/38445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}