• 30 Oct 2022 05:51 AM
• 0

Navy Evaluates Transwing VTOL

The US Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) announced in September that it had taken delivery of its first PteroDynamics XP-4 Transwing, an eVTOL uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) with folding wings. NAWCAD awarded PteroDynamics a contract in August 2021 to supply Transwing drones for the Blue Water Maritime Logistics UAS (BWUAS) program (see “Electric VTOL News,” Vertiflite, Nov/Dec 2021). Launched in 2018, the Navy’s BWUAS program aims to evaluate the possibility of using uncrewed aircraft for logistical replenishment missions, with an eye towards potentially replacing the crewed helicopters that currently conduct these operations. Over the coming months, the Rapid Prototyping, Experimentation and Demonstration team at NAWCAD will conduct a series of tests with the Transwing drones to examine their suitability for ship-to-shore and shore-to-ship operations.