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52 G riff Aviation’s family of heavy-lift multi-copters stemmed from a film maker’s need for a UAV to safely lift a 30 kg camera rig. Griff’s CEO Leif Johan Holand was running a company using manned helicopters, but in 2014 he decided he needed a complementary unmanned airborne platform, so he approached engineer Jan Martin Nysaeter to build the prototype of what has become the battery-electric Griff 135. They founded Griff Aviation to realise this UAV’s potential and that of larger derivatives using its technology. The company aims to serve the film and TV industries, as well as applications such as firefighting, agriculture, construction, search & rescue and long-range cargo transport, with payload capabilities of 30, 50, 150, 200 and 250 kg. All the Griffs fold down for ease of transport, and no tools are required for assembly or deployment, according to Griff Aviation’s technical manager Hans Petter Forde, who says a lot of engineering effort went into making them compact and foldable. The 135 has been built to what the company calls the Griff 2.0 master design, which is focused on maximising reliability and minimising weight by keeping the number of parts as low as possible. The most obvious example of this is the number of arms on which the motors and propellers are mounted. While the original technology demonstrator had eight arms with one motor each, today’s Griff 135 has only four, with one or two motors each depending on the version and application. That has shaved 10 kg off the 135, named for its anticipated maximum take- off weight. It now takes off at up to 125 kg with a 50 kg payload. Airframe Griff uses CNC techniques to machine complex structures from large billets of aviation-grade aluminium alloy. “We see many advantages with aluminium,” Forde says. “It is strong and light, and can be precision milled to ensure that parts fit perfectly. When it comes to certification it is a very familiar material to aviation authorities.” A further benefit is that it acts as a heat sink. Peter Donaldson examines the Griff 135, the first of a family of UAVs designed for film, TV and industrial roles Film club February/March 2020 | Unmanned Systems Technology