Key Features
Makes the UFO/UAP stories about "it transitioned from the water to the air and back to the water!!" seem way more plausible.
People always say this, but anyone I know who's ever worked in one of these companies that contracts for the DoD or DARPA always complains about how behind the market government tech is. Obviously private industry isn't producing competitors to the F35, but for less complicated kit the government doesn't seem to be doing anything super sophisticated. In fact a bunch of people I knew who went to Iraq bought supplemental gear on the private market.
Like, photography gear?
What's the use case? We have very good dedicated aerial drones and very good dedicated submarine drones. If something is technically possible but no one makes it usually it means it's not that interesting
This design uses 1 swashplate server plus 1 brushless drive motor for each prop for a total of 8 motors. Designs in Ukraine are now using 1 brushless drive motor to synchronously drive all 4 props and 1 swashplate servo each prop, reducing total number of motors to 5, which might be a natural path of optimization for this type of hybrid aerial underwater?
I’d expect it to have more range underwater than a typical quadcoter has through air. And much longer “flight” time.
But I doubt it gains enough to compete with a fixed wing drone using the same battery.
I would expect the opposite, with the higher drag being much more of an issue than gravity. But I would be interested to hear a definitive answer.
There might be less that can be done about the underwater drag, but if it doesn't need to go long distances underwater that's not as much of a problem. For the RF signal, it can either run autonomously underwater, or use a fibre-optic umbilical, or even convert from an umbilical to wireless when it takes to the air.
"Hybrid" usually means a combination of features from two different things.
For instance, a car with electric & internal combustion engines.
But here they are using "hybrid" to mean a combination of capabilities. That's different than features.
Also, "hybrid done" already has a meaning:
Or for the more cynical, replace "search and rescue" with "military covert ops".
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