Hovercraft helicopter hybrid UAV attracts interest of US military
By Conrad Quilty-Harper 
posted April 9th 2007 7:07AM
posted April 9th 2007 7:07AM
Geoff Hatton, a British engineer that previously worked on hovercraft designs, has designed an unmanned aerial vehicle that has attracted the interest of the US military and its very healthy budget allocation. The design is based around the melding of a hovercraft with a helicopter, and manages to take some of the best characteristics of each. For one thing, the saucer shaped UAV can fly high in the air (unlike a hovercraft) but also doesn't have a large rotor blade (unlike a helicopter.) The concept takes advantage of the "coanda effect" -- which says that a fluid will tend to stay attached to a convex surface -- with control surfaces at the base of the UFO-like vehicle used to alter the course of the UAV. One of the main reasons that the military is interested is that the design means there's much less of a problem with collisions because the rotor isn't as big or as exposed on other reconnaissance vehicles, although Geoff points out that there are "a lot of prospects besides the military": because civilians can be klutzes when it comes to unmanned aerial vehicles too.[Via The Raw Feed]
I for one welcome our UFO UAV overlords
What's with the font size? Looks like someone did a copy and paste and forgot to change the formatting. Tisk tisk...
I remember seeing something like this 6months ago
http://jlnlabs.imars.com/gfsuav/index.htm
Wonder why the US military are choosing the Brit over the other one?
"The design of the GFS-UAV N-01A is based on the Geoff Hatton' flying saucer from GFS Project limited."
Read your own link.
Because us Brits are more expensive, innit.
This is odd. The Army already has this type of vehicle: The Class I UAV. And its not even deployed yet.
http://www.army.mil/fcs/factfiles/uav1.html
that US UAV operates on a totaly different principle. It blows air straight down, and balances on the thrust. This device blows air over its outside surface, which sticks due to the Coanda Effect, while generating lift at the same time.
Different principle, yes, but it achieves the same result, the vehicle serves the same purpose, and they both have essentially the same footprint (once you kit the UFO out). Hence: odd.
This looks like a toy that I bought. It's called the Airhogs Vectron UltraLite.
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2338318
Yes: But can we attach some hellfire missles to it, and let it wander the dessert looking for kills?
Sweet, now the good ole boys can get some real life Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter action.