I have seen a lot of discussions about the urgent need for more airframes in the current military and disaster theaters, but they are not widely available because of costs and complexity I guess.
Our company C-LVL ( http://www.c-lvl.com/ ) is working on a small rugged tactical autogyro. We based our design on a civilian model and modified it extensively to build a real working ultralight (lifting body, crash proof cabin,efficient powerful turbocharged Rotax engine, hard-points, ...).
The TOAD has a simple autogyro design you can learn to fly in 2 weeks, the payload is limited compared to typical air assets but the cost enable swarm deployment.
Capable of transporting up to 3 crew members, it could be used for damage assessment, search and rescue, surveillance, tracking of vehicles and vessels, photography and reconnaissance.
We like to think of it as a new airborne “horse cavalry”, capable of moving light supplies and carry out reconnaissance quickly and stealthily.
I would be curious to hear what you think about our low cost / low tech approach. |