Carbon fiber is a strong and lightweight material for manned aircraft. As long as it is protected from hitting other objects, it outperforms metal. But resin-based construction materials (carbon fiber, fiberglass and reinforced plastics) were never intended to survive the blunt force trauma and rough handling small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) confront in the field. Resin-based materials crack and shatter when struck by objects at even medium velocities. Any sUAS constructed from these materials is one incident away from never flying again. Any sUAS manufacturer still using resin-based materials is using obsolete construction methods not suited for sUAS.
We know how much abuse these small aircraft are exposed to because we work in the field around these resin-based airframes. Time and time again we witnessed one hard landing, one aborted take-off or one pilot error and the entire airframe and even the payload were damaged beyond repair. We witnessed too many sUAS suffer only a minor bump on landing to discover that the airframe had a mission-ending crack that could not be repaired in the field.
We don’t use resin-based materials in the construction of Air Robotics products. We discovered long ago that carbon fiber and fiberglass do not perform well in the environment in which these systems are being used. We have spent over three years perfecting our patent-pending construction methods and materials used in our Im IV-C. The result of our efforts is an airframe that is so tough that you can hit it with a hammer and run over it with a truck. No other sUAS manufacturer will allow you to do that to their aircraft.
Tags: air robotics, future uav, Group 1, hand launched, small unmanned aircraft system, sUAS, UAS, UAV
