BlueBird has won a contract to supply its products to an undisclosed African country.
Ronen Nadir, BlueBird President, confirmed on 4 December that a deal has been signed, and that SkyLite systems will serve “government bodies” for observation tasks. The contract includes an “impressive” number of systems, he added.
The SkyLite is a portable, catapult-launched, electrically-powered loitering surveillance and reconnaissance UAS. The type is fully autonomous, from take-off to parachute recovery, and has an endurance of up to 4 hours.
In April 2011 BlueBird won a contract to supply UAS to the Ethiopian army, including its SkyLite and Boomerang designs.
According to the Israeli company, the Boomerang is the only UAS powered by hydrogen fuel cells that is currently capable of delivering a flight endurance of over 10 hours. The Boomerang can also carry a payload of up to 1.3kg (2.9lb).
A new version equipped with a forward fuselage canard is capable of flying for 15h, and of reaching an altitude of 15,000ft (4,570m), the company says.
Source: Flight Global