Aviation Naval Warfare Land Systems Small Arms By Flag By Year By Tag

Windhorse Aerospace Pouncer

2019 MODERN AIRCRAFT DRONE TECHNOLOGY

History of the Windhorse Aerospace Pouncer

One of the biggest challenges facing humanitarian organizations working in active war zones is providing medical supplies and food to besieged civilians. UK-based Windhorse Aerospace's "Pouncer" drone may address this need.

As a low-cost, low-risk system, if the project comes to fruition, the private jet could significantly change humanitarian missions.

The Pounder is an unpowered light glider drone designed to be launched from the air or using a catapult. Its payload consists entirely of medical supplies and food, and the airframe is designed to disintegrate upon landing, reaching a nose-up attitude and deploying a parachute to avoid reuse by enemy forces.

The fuselage of the plane was also designed to burn as a heat source, and later versions were likely made from squeezed vegetables for immediate consumption - making the Pouncer an "edible" drone. The onboard navigation system has a rudimentary GPS arrangement that allows for autonomous functionality, and this component is destroyed along with the airframe during a forced landing.

Pouncer is modeled on the capabilities of a human "wing suit", and company engineers take this available data and correlate it to a delta wing shape with a tubular, central fuselage and small wings at the wingtips. wing. No landing gear, saving weight, cost and production time.

The system can stay in the air for 20 miles and glide well over 25,000 feet when deployed from the open rear of a host ship such as a Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft at an altitude of 25,000 feet.

Three different versions of Pounder are planned for Mk. 1. Mk. 2 and Mk. 3. MK. 1 and Mk. 2 models are air-launched models of different sizes (Mk. 1 is the smallest model). The Mk. 1 has a payload capacity of up to 44 pounds, while the Mk. 2 has a payload capacity of nearly 110 pounds. The Mk. 3 is the largest of the group and is said to carry up to 220 pounds of cargo.