eVTOL developer Whisper Aero is joining the Mach Industries-led programme to develop advanced autonomous systems for the U.S. military and its allies, under a contract award for the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) Runway Independent Maritime Expeditionary Strike (RIMES) programme.
“Serving as the aircraft integrator, Mach Industries will lead development and overall program execution for the effort,” said Mach in a press release. “Mach Industries will execute this effort through a strategic partnership with Whisper Aero. Together the team is leveraging commercial technologies to design and deliver Atlas, a next-generation aircraft with a novel aero and propulsion approach that gives the warfighter an entirely new advantage for operations in contested environments.”
Mach Industries’ integration of Whisper Aero’s JetFoil™ in a scalable aircraft design, enables entirely new concepts of operations, said Mach. “Atlas can use unimproved rotary-wing landing zones, while maintaining the control simplicity of a fixed-wing aircraft and a thrust-to-weight ratio that is less than half of what is required for vertical flight. This, along with highly efficient propulsors, result in significantly increased range, as well as radical reductions in acoustic signature. The combination of these attributes, along with price points that enable low-cost mass, gives Atlas the ability to reduce cost per effect and fuel per effect in a contested environment.”
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