Aircraft

A £120,000 ($180,600) six-month UK Ministry of Defence study of a quad ducted fan-driven flying wing unmanned air vehicle has been completed.

Reading-based Vtol Technologies claims its flying wing UAV uses its four thrust vectoring ducted fans for "almost instantaneous" stall recovery, gust-insensitive loitering and a reverse thrust capability for landing on naval vessels' pitching decks.

The UAV is also said by its designers to have an ability to glide in the event of total propulsion failure.

Vtol Technologies completed the six-month detailed concept study of its patent-pending UAV design after winning a contract in July 2008 from the MoD's Centre for Defence Enterprise.

The UAV has a payload bay under the wing and Vtol Technologies says: "The thrust-vectoring propulsion unit design enables the UAV to be launched and recovered from moving vehicles. It has three to four times the endurance of current [vertical take-off and landing] UAVs carrying an equivalent power source."

The company claims the UAV's uses include crime surveillance, border control, traffic monitoring, humanitarian relief and fisheries protection. It has been under development since 2001.