The maker of a nascent Australian Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) that can transition between vertical and horizontal flight will have the resources of global aerospace and defence giant Airbus at his disposal for the next six months as he perfects his product as part of the annual Airbus BizLab accelerator program.
Iridium Dynamics CEO Ian Conway Lamb has joined Airbus at Toulouse in France, one of 12 global start up companies accepted in to the six-month program to develop skills such as business modelling, technical feasibility and team competence. Split between Toulouse and Airbus’s facility in Hamburg, Germany, the first phase concludes with a demonstration day where company founders present their start-ups to Airbus management, investors and global partners.
The accelerator brings together both external start-ups and so-called internal Airbus “intrapreneurs”, working together to make their innovations market ready. Airbus has graduated 56 start-ups and projects from the program in the past two years.
Iridium’s Halo UAS uses small electrically powered propellers to rotate the two-kilogram vehicle’s body, including two wing surfaces initially positioned to act like helicopter rotor blades. At altitude, the vehicle transitions to conventional twin-engine aircraft configuration, with the rotor blades pitching to become conventional wings and the electric engines providing forward thrust.
But the Halo can also return to hovering flight during the sortie, allowing close-up inspection or stand-off observation. It can be launched from anywhere, with a 2.5 hour endurance and 150 kilometre range in forward flight, and 80 minutes hover endurance.
“The Halo VTOL UAS we are developing was facing the classic high barriers to entry which are commonplace in the aerospace industry,” Conway Lamb said. “Airbus BizLab will support our manufacturing and flight trials, and assist with certification and operations. It’s a powerful network to join.”
Head of Airbus BizLab, Bruno Gutierres, said the successful 12 were among thousands of applicants from around the world.
“We were really amazed at the sheer quantity of applications,” he said. “This year we received applications from around the world, and were in touch with over 2000 interested contacts.”
This year’s participants are from nine different nations from Vietnam to the US, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Nigeria and cover a broad range of topics, from big data to drones and robotics.
“This time around we specifically sought out startups that aren’t directly involved in the aerospace industry, yet who are developing ideas that hold great potential for our industry,” Gutierres said.