Fly like a boat! What a curious reference for a flying drone but it lies at the very heart of the Flying Robots project. “We’ve introduced the principle of the foil into aviation,” says Loïc Binard, CEO of the startup, who is preparing, at the Sauvian airfield in Hérault, to launch an aircraft unlike any other, just as foils lift racing boats out of the water.
“The idea came from performances—particularly pyrotechnic ones—carried out under parachutes, which the team wanted to turn into drones and control remotely. But they realized that the machine’s capabilities were exceptional and that it could carry heavy loads.” — Loïc Binard, CEO
Visually, it’s a paramotor—a motorized, bulbous pod with a carefully designed 4.5-meter tail—suspended beneath a wing similar to that of a paraglider. Technically, it’s an innovation protected by several patents.
Light, fast and powerful
Drones are of interest to logistics operators for a thousand reasons: access to rugged or forested areas with no road or airport infrastructure; replacing costly helicopters or small planes for delivering heavy, medium, and large packages; bypassing urban congestion issues; and servicing dangerous zones, to name just a few. But, generally based on multi-rotor technology, they face a twofold challenge.
“They are complex—and therefore expensive and heavy. If you’re expensive, it’s difficult to offer an economically viable solution; if you’re heavy, your payload capacity is reduced.”
“A soft wing,” points out the engineer, a graduate of ESTACA, “is very light compared to a fixed wing or rotors, yet capable of supporting considerable weight. A 20-kg soft wing can carry 5 tonnes—an unmatched ratio in aviation. As a true parachute, it also adds safety for the drone and its payload. By contrast, a paramotor is fairly slow, but ours can easily exceed 100 km/h, which is perfectly acceptable for logistics, thanks to the architecture devised by the startup.”
“The pod, with its engine, is articulated and behaves like an aircraft beneath a flexible wing. That’s what makes it unique and gives it unusual performance.
In water, a foil lifts the boat (or holds it up) by generating a very large force over a small surface area, reducing drag and allowing it to reach high speeds. In the air, the same principle applied to its pod by Flying Robots reduces or increases lift, enabling strong downforce at low speeds during takeoff and landing. The 4.5 m version could carry 180 kg over 300 km, and the 7 m version 350 kg over the same distance, while consuming very little energy,” insists Loïc Binard. “And at a cost per kg/km two to three times lower.”
At the heart of l’Herault
Born in the 2000s and logging 2,000 flight hours—“a few prototypes were sold and attracted strong military interest”—the Flying Robots project was put on hold when it couldn’t move to the industrial stage. It was revived and redesigned three years ago thanks to the investment of Bertrand Vilmer (a General in the French Air Force, former fighter pilot and test pilot). The Hérault region is now hosting the first flights of the new generation of aircraft.
The wing and pod were designed in Mons-la-Trivalle, in the highlands of the Biterrois area. The prototype was manufactured by a subcontractor, MCJ Conception aéronautique, based in the same small village. Flight tests of the new drone version are set to begin in the coming weeks in Sauvian—initially with a pilot on board.
“Then, step by step, we’ll replace the pilot’s hands, feet, and brain as we move toward full drone operation. We still have about two years of work ahead before offering a commercial product,” along with securing the necessary funding.
Source: Midi Libre, by Ollivier Le Ny