USE Network launch I UAV Works VALAQ l Cable harnesses l USVs insight l Xponential 2020 update l MARIN AUV l Suter Industries TOA 288 l Vitirover l AI systems l Vtrus ABI

68 T he TOA 288 is a two-stroke boxer engine born from an ongoing partnership between Suter Industries (best known for precision engineering for race motorbikes) and Compass Aircraft Europe (CAE), formed to create a new series of engines for UAVs and light aircraft, as well as boats and hovercraft. It has been developed by a team of engineers led by Dietrich Kehe, founder and head of CAE, who we interviewed in our launch issue (November 2014). “There isn’t a great deal of knowhow in the world for creating really high- end two-strokes, and after leaving my previous company this was what I wanted to do – assuming I could find the right partner to work with the new company I’d created,” says Kehe. “Suter is a well-established company with its own machining departments, testing facilities and everything else needed to develop an engine. That motivated us to join with them and to start discussing what kind of engine made the most sense to design and develop.” They saw a niche for relatively small engines of about 300 cc with power outputs between 18 and 24 hp (13.4-17.9 kW), and predicted that higher power outputs and electrification would become paramount for UAVs as time went on. Developing the new engine began in spring 2018, and by the autumn that year the first prototype was on Suter’s in- house dynamometer. Now commercially available and approaching readiness for full-scale production, the TOA 288 (Twin, Opposed- cylinder, Air-cooled, 288 cc) weighs 9.3 kg and produces up to 17.7 kW (24 hp) at a maximum operating speed of 6500 rpm, and measures about 460 x 333 x 320 mm. This two-stroke is the first in a family of high-end UAV engines. Rory Jackson reports on how it was conceived and developed Family values June/July 2020 | Unmanned Systems Technology The TOA 288 is a 288 cc two-stroke boxer that runs on gasoline and produces up to 24 hp (Images courtesy of Suter Industries and CAE)