Unmanned Systems Technology 020 | Alpha 800 I Additive Manufacturing focus I USVs insight I Pegasus GE70 I GuardBot I AUVSI Xponential 2018 show report I Solar Power focus I CUAV Expo Europe 2018 show report

52 P egasus Aeronautics calls its GE70 system a range extender. That can be confusing though, since in the automotive world the term traditionally refers to a small auxiliary internal combustion engine (ICE) running a generator that is intended to be deployed only when a battery-electric vehicle is dangerously low on charge relative to the location of the nearest recharging point. For Pegasus the term ‘range extender’ is used to indicate that its technology gives a multi-rotor UAV a far greater range than the regular battery- electric power supply it replaces. We must also be careful in describing the GE70 as a series hybrid. Normally a series hybrid is a battery-electric power unit with the power of an ICE used to charge the battery via a generator. It is akin to the automotive range extender but with the ICE’s fuel supply providing the primary source of motive power. A number of companies have developed series hybrid systems for UAVs. The normal approach is to add an ICE to the battery-electric vehicle, which is used to charge the battery via a generator with its throttle managed as necessary to maintain the required voltage. That is the sort of system the three co-founders of Pegasus – CEO Matthew McRoberts, chief technology officer Joe Kinsella and chief production officer John Biskey – worked on while studying at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. “When we graduated, we were encouraged by the university to look at Ian Bamsey explains how this innovative range-multiplying system for electric multi-rotor craft was developed Going the extra distance June/July 2018 | Unmanned Systems Technology