The Aerovel Flexrotor UAS recently helped navigate a workboat fleet across the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, as the fleet retrieved massive anchors from mooring sites.

According to those involved with the mission, using the UAS was a cheaper, safer and more practical option than using manned aircraft to guide the fleet.

“This was the first genuinely sustained and economically successful mission for unmanned aircraft aboard ship in the Arctic,” said Matt Parker, vice president of Precision Integrated, which executed the mission. “We’ll soon be doing many more.”

The Flexrotor, which is responsible for long-range imaging reconnaissance missions at sea, helped significantly reduce the time that the fleet would have been at sea, as the ships made it home weeks before they were scheduled to. At the completion of the mission, the Flexrotor had totaled 19 hours over five flights.

When speaking with AUVSI via email, Aerovel Corp.’s president Tad McGeer highlighted the Flexrotor’s long endurance, light footprint, economy, autonomy, and image quality as features that made the system ideal for this mission.

McGeer added that in the near future, he would like to see the Flexrotor add the MWIR/EO turret from Alticam. Until then, however, McGeer sees the Flexrotor being capable of handling a variety of missions going forward.

“Shipboard operations to date also include reconnaissance for fisheries and observation,” he said. “In general the aircraft substantially expands the range of practical applications for airborne information-gathering, both ashore and at sea.”

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