HADA-Helicopter Adaptive Aircraft
Controlled with Veronte Autopilot, the “Helicopter Adaptive Aircraft” (HADA) is a reconfigurable UAV capable of flying in both helicopter and airplane modes.
The aim of HADA (Helicopter Adaptive Aircraft) project is to combine the capabilities of both helicopter and fixed wing aircrafts. All this achieved with an innovative design that permits to take-off, land and hover flight in helicopter mode and perform cruise flights in a fixed wing configuration.
This fully autonomous system is capable of in-flight morph between VTOL (Helicopter Mode) and conventional fixed wing (Aircraft Mode) configuration. Switch is as simple as folding or unfolding the two retractile wings that are beneath the fuselage and transferring power to the main rotor or pusher propeller.
HADA design joins capabilities of VTOL, with the flexibility of vertical take-off and landing, and fixed-wing RPAS, high efficiency cruise flight with extended speed & endurance. This ingenious system includes autonomous inflight morphing capabilities, permitting to perform missions that are not possible with conventional VTOL or fixed-wing UAVs.
A typical HADA mission may include the following phases:
- Take-off in helicopter mode with folded wings under the fuselage; flight control is performed as a conventional helicopter.
- Once in the air, fixed wing transition starts by flying forward. Wings are unfolded gradually, maintaining helicopter control.
- Already wings are unfolded, power transition is performed from main and tail rotor to the forward propeller.
- When full power is transferred to the propeller, main rotor is folded and control continues in airplane mode.
- Inverse transition can be performed at any time during the flight, either for flying in helicopter mode with hover flight capabilities or for vertical landing.
Installed control electronics provide fully autonomous control capabilities, including VTOL and fixed wing flight modes together with automatic morphing between Helicopter and Aircraft Modes.
Datalink radio is installed within the system, permitting to inflight edit the mission and to monitor the flight within a range up to 90 Km. Manual aircraft control can also be taken at any time during the flight in case it is required by operator.
Embention participates in HADA project jointly with INTA (Spanish National Institute of Aerospace Technology) installing Veronte Autopilot control electronics for flight control.
