The US DoD’s National Security Innovation Capital has awarded a USD1 million contract to California-based Parallel Flight Technologies, Inc., to support further development and enhancement of its long-range Firefly hybrid UAS solution, aimed at emerging defence and commercial applications.
The UAS embodies the company’s proprietary Parallel Hybrid Electric Multirotor (PHEM) architecture, which offers flight time gains at affordable costs. This contract is the first phase of an anticipated multi-part agreement, which will equip Firefly with a beyond visual line of site (BVLOS) communication system that enables the aircraft to fly autonomously via waypoints to the limit of its 280-mile range, and will validate time-between-overhaul targets.
The primary market for this advanced prototype within DoD is blood and medical supply delivery in austere environments. However, following validation of this mission capability, the company foresees additional military applications with similar payload and range requirements. For commercial use-cases, high demand for PFTs UAS is expected across numerous verticals, including wildfire and land management, powerline, utility/infrastructure, medical/disaster logistics, agriculture, maritime operation and wind-turbine related missions.
For more information: www.parallelflight.com
(Image: Under an Other Transaction agreement, Parallel Flight will target milestones to enhance development of its UAS to meet mission critical DoD objectives. Credit: Parallel Flight)
