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16 W illiam ‘Bill’ Fredericks’ story is a classic example of public- sector r&d providing a private-sector entrepreneur with a flying start. In 2015 he formed the Advanced Aircraft Company (AAC) to commercialise a radical UAV – the Greased Lightning, a VTOL tilt-wing craft – whose design he had led while working at NASA a few years earlier. Among the designs he undertook at NASA was a dynamic soaring UAV to gather data on hurricanes; however his involvement with one that would get to fly came in 2011 when a government agency (which he declines to name) approached NASA with a demanding requirement. “That was to design a UAV that can take off and land vertically, yet fly for 24 hours – two diametrically opposed requirements,” Fredericks says. The Greased Lightning emerged from this design process, and was flown as a sub-scale prototype but shelved. Fast forward to summer 2015 and Fredericks was considering his future. “I was thinking that, rather than working for the government as a researcher where I was trying to advance technology by pushing on a rope, why don’t I start a company, license this technology and get it into the marketplace?” he says. That said though, the current focus of the company’s development effort is on a simpler multi-rotor craft called the Hercules, which is serving as a stepping stone to the Greased Lightning. It’s a change of direction that emerged during business planning. “By the time I could generate revenue with the Greased Lightning, I would need to have raised $6-8 million and done three to four years of development to get it to the required quality,” Fredericks explains. His primary reason for this change of direction was to show some business acumen to help raise money on more favourable terms. “Because I’d been The Advanced Aircraft Company’s CEO tells Peter Donaldson about how working for NASA gave him a perfect start in the UAV business Public-private enterprise April/May 2017 | Unmanned Systems Technology The Greased Lightning in VTOL mode comes into land. The autopilot manages the angles of the wing and tail surfaces independently to a non-linear schedule (Images courtesy of AAC)