High Endurance Attritable Hybrid Electric Drone

DragoonÆs successful Phase I effort resulted in a preliminary design for an Inexpensive Long Endurance Drone (ILED).Ā The current approach to designing and manufacturing unmanned systems has resulted in exquisite assets which are arenÆt economically viable when considering mission sets where attrition is guaranteed.Ā In order to manufacture a highly capable platform at a low cost, a novel approach is required.Ā The preliminary design is based on DragoonÆs unique hybrid electric system architecture, which allows the system to utilize energy dense batteries for high power phases of flight and an internal combustion engine for cruise, increasing platform capability significantly.Ā Traditionally, UAS platform cost is largely driven by a small number of expensive ōblack boxö subcomponents.Ā DragoonÆs approach to vertically integrating all of these components into a tightly coupled system architecture results in very low total system cost.Ā In addition, manufacturing processes to bridge the gap between prototype and high-rate production are being implemented at the earliest stage possible.Ā The proposed Phase II base effort will involve the detailed design of the ILED concept, manufacturing prototypes, and demonstrating the prototype ILED aircraft in a full system test. The addition of the Phase II option will enable refinement of the design and construction of additional prototypes, along with a second demonstration of the aircraft.