Russia has long been known for making large machines. They hold the current record for the largest helicopter ever made – the MiL V12. Same goes for the world’s largest airplane, the Antonov An-225. Largest submarine? Yep, they made that too – the Typhoon class. It would appear they’ve thrown their hat in the drone business as well.
While the SKYF drone is made by a private Russian company, it is one of the largest drones we’ve ever seen. Able to lift 400 pounds (a Phantom 3 weighs 2.8 pounds) and can fly for eight hours, the SKYF drone is a nice piece of aeronautical engineering. Quad-copter style drones provide lift by brute force, and are typically plagued with low lift capacities and short flight times. The SKYF triumphs over these limitations by using gasoline powered engines for lift and electric motors for navigation.
It’s still in the prototype stage and being advertised for use in natural disasters and the agriculture industry. Check out the video in the link above to see the SKYF in action.
What’s the largest drone you’ve seen?
Thanks to [Itay] for the tip!
Drone or Autonomous helicopter? – The line is becoming more and more blurred.
Still a drone, autonomous helicopter would suggest that at any point it can be manned if necessary which is not the case for any kind of drone.
Drones are not just helicopter. I hate people calling quad copters drones as it cover a wide range of automus aircraft
I thought drones were male bees.
However, calling little worker helicopters “drones” is kind of an insult, considering that drone bee is a metaphor for a lazy do-nothing gluttons.
Lazy do-nothing? That’s the opposite of a drone bee. Drone bees are constantly busy, they work like they have no desire to do anything else. The metaphor to me means about the same as calling someone a robot or automaton. Someone who acts like they’re behavior is programmed.
Serves me right. I post, THEN look up drone bees. First hit, “they’re maybe not so busy as you’d think”. And second. And third. Anyway, the drone bee metaphor as far as I’ve ever heard it builds on that apparently mistaken stereotype.
The use of “drone” for remotely controlled aircraft is only tangentially related to drone bees, at least according to this article.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324110404578625803736954968
The name arose from an early model, the de Havilland DH-82B Queen Bee. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/spiesfly/uavs_05.html
Man, this keeps droning on and on…..
Not wanting to provide any clicks to the dailywail, I looked up the manufacturers directly ( https://skyf.pro/en/main-2/ )
So, it’s strictly a hex-copter with two petrol rotors providing the bulk thrust and an outer ‘quad’ electric rotor arrangement providing more manoeuvring control/instantaneous thrust.
I like that they’ve even designed it to fold (slightly) so you can fit it into a standard shipping container.
Kind of like having a dirigible do the lifting and rotors doing the maneuvering.
What about this Sikorsky S-76 commercial helicopter?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3623503/Self-driving-Try-self-FLYING-Autonomous-helicopter-makes-30-mile-journey-Connecticut.html
There there are the ones the US navy use routinely.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_MQ-8_Fire_Scout
Or the Army’s unmanned K-Max with it’s 6000 lbs cargo capacity. Based on a dual-rotor helicopter specifically designed for lifting, and actually used in service.
Not just used in service. It was very successful, and about 5+ years ago.
They had Boeings fly fully automatic too, doesn’t make it a drone.
As said, if it has a pilot seat it aint a drone.
An-255 is Ukrainian airplane operated by ukrainian airline company. Try at least reading wikipedia before posting something.
Not like the Mil-V12 and Typhoon are Russian either. They’re (including the Mriya) were built by Soviet
The An-255 was designed and built in the Soviet Union, so to say it’s a “Ukrainian airplane” is a bit of a stretch.
And how exactly saying it’s a “Russian airplane” is less of a stretch?
It was transferred to separatist Ukraine after the USSR split up, it still doesn’t give it the merit of designing and manufacturing the plane. Not to mention that design bureaus had nothing to do with Ukrainian ideas of national identity.
There is only single plane exists that was built in 1988, so wikipedia says that An-255 National origin: Soviet Union
as well as
“Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991, Russia was internationally recognized[55] as its legal successor on the international stage”
Larger than reaper drone?
for the rest of the world… 400 pounds ~= 181 Kilograms
+1
+1 thanks, pound is unit without size for me
So you like to read scientific articles but refuse to divide by 2.2? Your loss of viewership would be devastating.
+1
Thank you.
I am sure the Russians specified the requirements in pounds. :)
Or zolotniks, lots, funts, poods, berkovets…
looks like a skynet search drone.
Don’t expect any US (or allied) “critical infrastructure” related, or national security related concern to be purchasing any of these anytime soon. The fact it’s manufacturer is a frenemy (Russia) is a significant barrier to it’s usage in those mentioned areas. Similar to DJI products being banned by the US military (and DHS putting out warnings). Evidently the DJI ‘drones’ persist in “phoning home” to relay all sorts of information (photographs, geotags, etc) – and it’s well known DJI shares this information with the Chinese authorities (translation: they are spying for them).
https://publicintelligence.net/ice-dji-china/
Why would they? The USA has advanced unmanned aircraft, including load carriers such as this, that have been in testing and real-world use for years now. Stupid idiot, no one cares about your late news trying to mansplain the rest of us on shit you have no idea about other than reading some wired article.
Did you forget to take your meds today?
fossil fuels > electric. fancy that.
“energy dense liquid fuels > electric.” There. fixed it.
It’s incidental that most liquid fuels are currently derived from fossil fuel. If a vehicle devotes a third of its mass to energy storage, like a Tesla S, you should expect it to get across a whole continent, not a measly few hundred km.
Heck, even Elon Musk heavily promotes dense liquid fuels (for SpaceX).
I wonder if hydrogen cells would be usable for air vehicles like this, they are kind of heavy though
An electric quadcopter or the like burns watts per gram to stay aloft. A lightweight fuel cell like http://www.fuelcellstore.com/fuel-cell-stacks/ultralight-fuel-cells yields about a half a watt per gram. So with a fuel cell you’re several times too heavy already, not even counting the fuel and fuel storage tanks required, nor all the rest of the hardware.
We’re still not really sure if oil is of fossil or natural origin…just sayin’
So now fossils aren’t of natural origin?
What the fuck are you “sayin”
Who are the ones not sure? Because I never heard doubt, nor do I know of a process to get oil from non-organic matter.
But perhaps I’m ill informed.
“What’s the largest drone you’ve seen?” By which you mean “remotely piloted aircraft”?
That would be Dave McEwen’s fleet of converted Canadian Sabre fighter jets, starting back in the mid 1970’s. I saw the last of the 20 or so he built when I was flying out of his airport in the early 80’s. Yes, genuine full-size remotely-piloted jet fighters, but stripped of armament. More info: http://aviationarchives.net/Flight%20Systems%20Sabres.htm Kids, these days, piddling around with those puny electric things. :-)
He sold them for target practice…
Biggest I know of were B-17s converted for RPV drones, and they had TV cameras for FPV.. stripped out of everything else they had a 25,000lb plus payload. Designations were BQ-17 when used as guided munitions and QB-17 when used as targets.
Remotely operated B-17s were also flown through the mushroom cloud during an atomic weapons test.
looks like an octocopter to me.. not a quad.
But with 6 rotors, it is a hexcopter.
I’m having trouble finding any reference to the one the British Army had in the 1980s, it had contra rotating rotors, and a mast mounted sensor package, possibly similar to those mounted on Lynx and other service helis at the time. It’s was quite large because it was hauling probably 1970s designed sensors, like maybe tube based thermal cameras. Anyway, that thing should have had payload in the 100s of pounds area. It was for battlefield recon for armored units… tactical recon drone.
The “drones” in military service thing was quite fragmented in most nations up to the 2000s, navy and army would have their own, then airforces would be all “all ur drones are belong to us” because of fear of being replaced etc.. So with services keeping their projects low key from each other even, it doesn’t seem to be a very well documented area/time for them. There’s a couple more types I can remember that don’t appear on wikipedias lists. Also designations were all over the place, RPV, UAV, drone, URV and many variations.
What a bizzare definition of large. Poke around the US Air & Space museum outside DC sometime, they’ve got a nice “little” nuclear capable unmanned helicopter on display. (apparently overkill does not apply to depth charges)
I saw that, just last week! It’s in the DJI sponsered Drone exhibit next to the Intrepid. (Along with the Lady GaGa Dress drone,,,)
Isn’t it just a render that far from real product?
Wonder if Amazon is on the wait list for some of these :)
I saw a Mil Mi-12 at the Paris airshow in the early 70′, during a flight exhibition and latter on the ground.
As a kid then I learned that day what the word “huge” means…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaman_K-MAX
Amazon could deliver some serious sh*t with this…
Amazon has some huge planes I think, they at one time were talking about leasing 20 Boeing 767’s, and I assume they did.
Yup: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=amazon+boeing
Hm. The Antonov company is mainly Ukrainian, although in the Soviet days it might as well have been a Soviet manufacturer. However, to say that the Antonov cargo planes are Russian inventions nowadays may not sit well with Kiev.
If you want to nitpick, it’s spelled Kyiv. You’re welcome. ;-)
Oleg Antonov was Russian though.
Incidentally, more sober people half-jokingly simply refer to Ukraine as ‘little Russia’.
Or half-not-jokingly, as the case may be.
Wasn’t the Kaman K-Max performing autonomous delivery operations in Afghanistan for the US Marines?