Unmanned Systems Technology 017 | AAC HAMR UAV | Autopilots | Airborne surveillance | Primoco 500 two-stroke | Faro ScanBot UGV | Transponders | Intergeo, CUAV Expo and CUAV Show reports

34 December/January 2018 | Unmanned Systems Technology Dossier | Advanced Aircraft Company HAMR UAV says. He notes that many suppliers are focused either on the defence industry or the hobby industry, but AAC needs suppliers that provide higher quality but with a lower cost structure than the former. He expects to finalise the design by the end of the year and, with that goal in mind, is working on a few design tweaks. “We are working on a bunch of little things that will improve the user- friendliness and reliability,” he says. “For example, we want to upgrade the quality of the electrical connectors and put a carry handle in a convenient place so it’s easier to pick up.” There are also decisions to be made about the production line, including its location. “We have three options so far. The first is to grow the company in-house, the second is to go to a contract manufacturer, and the third is to license the design to another aerospace company. At this point, I’m keeping all three on the table.” He anticipates making the decision in the spring or summer of 2018. “When I need to ramp up the production rate, that would be the time to decide whether we are going to grow the number of employees in-house or look for external help.” Navy demonstration At the time of writing, in November 2017, Fredericks was about to demonstrate the HAMR to the US Navy at Little Creek, near the naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, by operating it from an M-80 Stiletto, a stealthy, high-speed twin M-hull technology demonstration vessel built for shallow water coastal operations. “We are sticking our toe in the water to work through the contracting process. There’s absolutely zero commitment at this point for any sort of order or contract, so it’s all on us to do the customer demos and business development.” He is cagey though about the number of customers the HAMR has attracted so far, but says deliveries to ‘beta’ customers are set to begin in early 2018. Go Greased Lightning While the HAMR must succeed as a commercial product in its own right, it was always meant to lay the groundwork for the Greased Lightning, the multi- motor tilt-wing UAV Fredericks designed and built at NASA, and which will use the hybrid power plant technology developed for the HAMR. “Once the HAMR is up and running, once we have the production line set up and are starting to generate revenue from that, then we can start doing the r&d on the next product,” he says. Bill Fredericks and NASA colleagues with a Greased Lightning prototype, development of which will be restarted when the HAMR is in production (Courtesy of NASA)