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That is a lot more complicated for something that isn’t needed. These VTOL are for medium drones that currently operate from fields or ships. But not for full s

That is a lot more complicated for something that isn’t needed. These VTOL are for medium drones that currently operate from fields or ships. But not for full sized aircraft which are going to take off from runways. Which would be easier to work like F-35B. There is advantage to take off vertically close to troops. I’ve been following V-BAT which is tail lander, and competing to replace recon drone that takes off from field. And only needs a couple people to operate.

jacknews 2y ago
"There is advantage to take off vertically close to troops" Of course, it just seems you could launch them vertically, in two stages, so the drone itself is unencumbered by VTOL requirements, and such a system could potentially scale to manned craft.
- ianburrell 2y ago
  The problem is that the launch drone is bigger than the drone. And it uses all the same technologies, the motors, the propellers. And the launch drone has to be able to move forward to give the plane drone enough velocity. Just replace the plane drone with some weapons or fuel, and you have a VTOL drone. The size is important too, instead of having a small drone, you have a small drone and bigger drone. You have to transport the bigger drone, when the whole point was to use a small drone. It would make sense to have a launch system. The ScanEagle uses launcher and pole to capture it on landing. Or drones that launch from runways with rockets, and then get caught by nets. But the VTOL designs mean that you don't need to any of that infrastructure. You pay a penalty in weight and maybe increased size, but that isn't a problem for these drones where flexibility is more important.
  - jacknews 2y ago
    The launch drone(s) only need enough energy for take-off, not the entire mission, and I'm thinking more like a small swarm of launch drones, not a single 'carrier' behemoth. But as you say, maybe it makes less sense for these kinds of drone. The idea comes from thinking about aircraft carriers. A carrier with 50-odd planes is $100B+ crown-jewel target, and in an age of drone swarms, massed smart missiles, etc, it must have a fairly short half-life. An alternative might be to launch single planes from small boats with 'virtual runways'. Pure speculation and thought-experiment of course.
  - euroderf 2y ago
    > It would make sense to have a launch system. At last, a reason to deploy a trebuchet.

jacknews 2y ago

"There is advantage to take off vertically close to troops" Of course, it just seems you could launch them vertically, in two stages, so the drone itself is unencumbered by VTOL requirements, and such a system could potentially scale to manned craft.

ianburrell 2y ago
The problem is that the launch drone is bigger than the drone. And it uses all the same technologies, the motors, the propellers. And the launch drone has to be able to move forward to give the plane drone enough velocity. Just replace the plane drone with some weapons or fuel, and you have a VTOL drone. The size is important too, instead of having a small drone, you have a small drone and bigger drone. You have to transport the bigger drone, when the whole point was to use a small drone. It would make sense to have a launch system. The ScanEagle uses launcher and pole to capture it on landing. Or drones that launch from runways with rockets, and then get caught by nets. But the VTOL designs mean that you don't need to any of that infrastructure. You pay a penalty in weight and maybe increased size, but that isn't a problem for these drones where flexibility is more important.
- jacknews 2y ago
  The launch drone(s) only need enough energy for take-off, not the entire mission, and I'm thinking more like a small swarm of launch drones, not a single 'carrier' behemoth. But as you say, maybe it makes less sense for these kinds of drone. The idea comes from thinking about aircraft carriers. A carrier with 50-odd planes is $100B+ crown-jewel target, and in an age of drone swarms, massed smart missiles, etc, it must have a fairly short half-life. An alternative might be to launch single planes from small boats with 'virtual runways'. Pure speculation and thought-experiment of course.
- euroderf 2y ago
  > It would make sense to have a launch system. At last, a reason to deploy a trebuchet.