Silent Arrow at this time introduced that one of many firm’s unique GD-2000 flight take a look at plane, tail quantity N23SA, has been donated and accepted by the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Air and Area Museum. The two,000-pound cargo supply plane has arrived on the museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Heart in Chantilly, Virginia for accessioning and future public show.
“One of many aerospace business’s emergent challenges is deploying autonomous applied sciences for the motion of cargo and supplies,” mentioned Aeronautics Division Curator Dr. Roger Connor. “We’re excited so as to add this essential flight take a look at plane, that demonstrates a definite and distinctive strategy to fixing unmanned supply, to our assortment.”
The donated plane is a full scale, absolutely purposeful, 1-ton autonomous cargo supply glider that was an integral a part of the Silent Arrow flight take a look at program and final flew in Pendleton, Oregon on July 16, 2020 after being dropped from a Bell UH-1H “Huey” from 5,000 ft AGL (8,720 MSL). The GD-2000 product identify means “Glider, Disposable, 2,000 kilos” and it’s able to inside or exterior airborne deployment from rotorcraft or from fixed-wing cargo ramps such because the C-130.
This airframe is important in that it spent a big portion of its flight inverted, which in the end required pilot intervention to proper the plane earlier than returning it to autonomous flight mode after which it made a easy and profitable touchdown. As a single use, disposable cargo supply platform, usually the airframes are broken upon touchdown in the midst of defending their cargo. Nevertheless, this autonomous touchdown resulted in minimal injury and was recovered submit flight, repaired and shipped again to Silent Arrow headquarters in Orange County, California.
The serendipitous inverted flight of this take a look at plane enabled the Silent Arrow software program engineering staff to develop an autonomous upset restoration function which was applied on all subsequent plane and has confirmed efficient throughout latest C-130 deployments within the U.S. and abroad.
“It’s an unbelievable honor to have certainly one of our hard-working flight take a look at plane make it into the Smithsonian,” mentioned Chip Yates, Silent Arrow’s Founder and CEO. “From inauspicious beginnings towing early prototypes with a trailer for knowledge gathering to the present-day C-130, C-17 and A400M deployment applications we’ve, I’m happy with the Silent Arrow staff for attaining this milestone.”
About Silent Arrow
The Silent Arrow® product line consists of 5 attritable, autonomous cargo supply plane able to carrying 350 to 2,000 kilos of emergency, catastrophe reduction and humanitarian response provides anyplace on this planet on quick discover. The Silent Arrow GD-2000, Widebody, SA-PGB, CLS-200 and CLS-300 present a big selection of contested logistics capabilities to the warfighter. Silent Arrow’s engineering staff has been awarded greater than 22 patents, 6 Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) plane world information and a pair of FAI Louis Bleriot medals for disruptive contributions to the aerospace business. In 2021 Silent Arrow® was chosen as a finalist for the Robert J. Collier Trophy because the “Best Achievement in Aeronautics or Astronautics in America,” and in 2024 a Silent Arrow flight take a look at plane, N23SA, was accepted into the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Air and Area Museum in Washington, DC.
For extra data go to www.Silent-Arrow.com.
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