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

68 E very year, a new US city plays host to AUVSI Xponential, the world’s biggest exhibition and conference for unmanned vehicles and innovations. For 2018, this mammoth event went to Denver, a city well-suited as host, with its burgeoning tech industry and high altitudes. At the Acutronic booth Zachary Matthews told us about the German- made turbine engines that his company is importing into North America. Newly developed by AeroDesignWorks is a family of turboshaft hybrid engines (SP7, SP35 and SP75), converting fuel- generated shaft power into electrical energy such that they can be configured as a parallel or a series hybrid. Matthews said the SP75 “has an axial turbine and a three-stage compressor with two axial and one diagonal stage. Power is 75 kW at 85,000 rpm; power- specific fuel consumption is 0.88 lb/kW/h. Upscaled to 180 kW, its fuel consumption would be 33% better than that of the competition’s 180 kW model.” Ian Bamsey and Rory Jackson were on hand to investigate the new systems and technologies making their debut at this huge show, held in May in Denver, Colorado On the High Plains trail Companies from all over the world had exhibits at the show (Courtesy of BEC Photography) June/July 2018 | Unmanned Systems Technology