Issue 45 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Aug/Sept 2022 Tidewie USV Tupan | Performance monitoring | Bayonet 350 | UAVs insight | Xponential 2022 | ULPower UL350i and UL350iHPS | Elroy Air Chaparral | Gimbals | Clogworks Dark Matter

64 Insight | UAVs Marta Lapiana, COO at EuroLink Systems, says, “Since then we’ve expanded the Beluga product line into a family of multi- mission quadrotors, and for now we have a particular focus on critical aid missions such as high-speed sanitary blood transportation, search & rescue, and disaster area surveillance. However, last-mile logistics, precision agricultural mapping and other missions for public and defence users can also be handled with our different mission configurations.” As standard, the Beluga measures 980 x 630 x 450 mm, and has a MTOW of 10 kg. Its aerodynamic design – which resembles the body of a beluga whale, hence its name – has wing-shaped rotor arms and can cruise at up to 110 kph; it also has a flight endurance of up to 60 minutes when carrying a 1.5 kg payload. “We carried out some detailed and lengthy studies with the University of Rome to identify what would be the most aerodynamically efficient shape for a quadrotor body,” Lapiana says. “Most are just cube bodies with tubular rotor arms – very inefficient shapes – but ours is engineered to really reduce the impact and drag of air. Belugas are giant animals, but they’re shaped to move really fast and elegantly through fluid.” The Beluga also integrates as standard an FPV camera, configurable as 1280 x 720, 1920 x 1080 (1080p) or 3840 x 2160 (8 MP or 4K UHD), and a radio data link with 20, 30 or 40 km of effective maximum range. “We have several configurations of the UAV though,” Lapiana adds. “The white Fast Transportation version comes with a detachable cargo bay, the black Surveillance and Rescue version has a modular payload bay for swapping payloads such as EO/IR, Lidar and hyperspectral in and out, and the grey camo-print Military model is US Blue UAS-approved, using only components made in the US or allied nations.” All the variants are interoperable via the same control software, and use a modicum of shared parts for maintenance ease. “In the future, EuroLink plans to develop a tethered version for persistent semi- stationary surveillance, and a submersible version that can perform maritime surveys above and under the waterline – we look forward to returning the Beluga to the sea,” Lapiana says. “We are also developing biomimetic propellers with serrated trailing edges inspired by the speed and silence of owl feathers.” ISR In issue 11 (December 2016/January 2017) we featured C-Astral’s Bramor UAV, a blended-wing body aircraft designed for long-range persistent surveys, and the Slovenian company has now unveiled its next-generation system, the SQA eVTOL UAS. “We had a very long run with the Bramor – over 13 years, and selling the system in 72 countries – and the SQA is the next evolution in the C-Astral ecosystem,” says Marko Peljhan, director and CEO of C-Astral. “Based on many years of user feedback, we’ve designed it as an electric VTOL- transitioning machine with detachable twin booms and a MTOW of around 10 kg. It can also carry powerful ISR payloads, including an EO/IR system with an 80x optical zoom for the day sensor and an 8x optical zoom for the IR sensor.” A lot of r&d went into optimising the aerodynamics and balance between the VTOL and cruising modes. As a result, the SQA can cruise at 61-108 kph, and in normal operation can take off and land in wind speeds of up to 29 kph. It flies for up to 2.5 hours on its battery, although the company has calculated that this figure will rise to 3.5-4 hours once the packs are switched from lithium-polymer to lithium-ion chemistry and the BMS is updated. These upgrades will be available in the SQA Mk 2, to be released later this year. The first production and deliveries of SQAs began this May, with UVS Canada, Purdue University and Arctic UAV and Leonardo as its launch customers. “We’ve carried over many of the Bramor’s features, including integration with our command, control, comms and planning software that sits at the heart of our C4 system, while using new avionics and associated firmware,” Peljhan adds. “We’ve also spent the past 4 years developing our own data link [the Astral- Dynamic DDL] using a proprietary protocol, although we still integrate comms from many of the top radio hardware providers such as Microhard, Trellisware, Commtact and Silvus.” August/September 2022 | Uncrewed Systems Technology C-Astral’s SQA is an evolution of its Bramor, redesigned for improved aero and VTOL transitioning (Courtesy of C-Astral)