105 thrusters in the front. The rear thrusters are the highest-thrust version of Jetoptera’s proprietary FPS technology so far, and several versions have been successfully tested by the company. “Two of those thrusters are installed at the front of our J-2000, which is to be our first crewed aircraft, a two-seater, so it has made sense for us to start at this engine size, and to do so in a UAV initially before moving up to bigger engines and to vehicles that can carry four or more people,” Evulet says. “Along the way, we’ve developed and calibrated numerous unique r&d tools of our own for CFD, as well as probabilistic tools, statistical tools, manufacturability and other hugely valuable means of experimenting with and validating our prototype designs, which have proven indispensable towards engineering working turbomachinery and aircraft over the last couple of years. These now validated, unique tools are used for scaling up our technology to larger and larger scales and sizes.” While 3DXR is best known as a specialist autopilot engineering consultancy and supplier of Cubepilot systems in the UK, we met with the company at DroneX to learn how its portfolio of supplied components has greatly expanded over the past few years. As Ben Wilkinson of 3DXR told us: “While Cube Orange is still the most used autopilot we provide, we’re seeing growing interest in Cube Red, especially for its dual-redundancy. Since the Cube systems are modular, our customers can take any Cube, put it on virtually any board, old or new, and it works.” In addition to autopilots, newer additions to 3DXR’s warehouse and distribution portfolio include telemetry radios, power-management units, voltage and current sensors, and Lidar models from companies such as LightWare, which are gaining popularity in the UAV space. Wilkinson told us that 3DXR now stocks electric motors from T-Motor, Hobbywing and additional large manufacturers of propulsion solutions, including those providing batteries, servo actuators and propellers, for fast shipping worldwide from its UK location. “What is particularly exciting in the industry right now is an influx of combined, motor-ESC units, available from small to big size and power ranges; those make for a tightly integrated and guaranteed, reliable electric-propulsion system, which is really helpful for engineers trying to build or modify a UAV in a smooth and tidy way,” he said. “We now supply most of the sorts of parts used for building a custom UAV, from hobby users to commercial, civil and military organisations, kept in large stock for quick delivery to constructors who are under pressure of time to innovate something reliable quickly.” CRP Technology came from Italy to present its enhanced additive manufacturing services, using its proprietary Windform materials, developed to significantly improve the capabilities of selective laser sintering (SLS). These innovations are centred around a range of advanced composite materials, specifically designed to elevate SLS applications for high-end markets, including components for UAVs, vehicles and satellite systems. “For instance, we’ve been co-operating with Flying-Cam’s r&d teams to speed up their VTOL UAV development with parts additively manufactured from our Windform XT2.0 material,” said Laura Fabbi at CRP Group. Flying-Cam specifically involved CRP Technology in the manufacturing of its tail-rotor gearbox housing, which attaches to the main tail boom. “The choice of material has been very accurate as the part to be was conceived to withstand specific issues. It needed to clamp on the tail boom and also DroneX | Show report Uncrewed Systems Technology | December/January 2025 One of Jetoptera’s 250 lbf thrusters that the company has tested CRP Technologies’ Windform materials are used in selective laser-sintering printers to additively manufacture advanced components for a range of aircraft
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