did not take a lead,' Meagher told Sandboxx News. 'We want to avoid what happened on the small UAS market, where the U.S. He said his organization has worked to share as much data and information as possible, so that partner services and agencies don’t have to start development work from scratch. Partnerships with other military branches – as well as non-military entities including the FAA and NASA – are at the core of what AFWERX is trying to accomplish, Meagher indicated. Flying Magazine reported in May that the Corps was looking to debut such a platform as soon as next year. The Marine Corps joined forces with AFWERX for eVTOL testing back in 2020, stating its interest in a moderate-sized unmanned cargo aircraft for delivering supplies on the battlefield or during expeditionary advanced base operations. Joby Aviation, offering an aircraft with six large top propellers, received approval from the FAA and Air Force in January to test out a second prototype aircraft. In all, AFWERX has partnered with 13 companies offering electric aerial vehicles for testing and development. 'We're continuing to do site surveys as other vendors begin to have more assets available, and seeing what we can get out of other test locations.' 'Other things we're looking at is, how we continue to get more Air Force operators involved in seeing some of the flight tests with the vehicles,' Meagher said. The Army has also expressed interest in Alia’s potential, and awarded Beta a contract to support further flight testing in January. Later this year, Meagher said, AFWERX Prime will team up with the Army for another test near Vermont, home of Beta Technologies. Eglin officials say it got 50 feet off the ground during the test. The futuristic ultralight platform gets lift from 18 small propellers similar to those on commercial quadcopters. In April, a single-seat eVTOL aircraft called HEXA, made by LIFT Aircraft, conducted a flight demo at Eglin.

That, Meagher said, represented the first time Defense Department personnel had gotten behind the controls of an eVTOL aircraft.Īlso this year, AFWERX Prime started test operations at a designated testing range at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. In March, the program ticked off a major developmental milestone: two Air Force pilots conducted a test flight in Alia, an electric plane with a rear propeller and 50-foot wingspan made by Beta Technologies. Stated priorities for all platforms include being able to operate independently of a runway, incorporating some measure of autonomy, and using advanced manufacturing and materials. 'But we haven't gotten much into the uncrewed or remotely piloted or, or even eventually, autonomous cargo operations, which certainly will be of interest moving forward.' 'What we've seen in the military is, we've had a significant effort over the last couple of years on drones, for different purposes,' Meagher said. AFWERX is looking for platforms that can meet one of three specifications: a transport for three-eight personnel that can travel between 150-300 miles a shorter-range, shorter capacity platform that can move loads of 300 or 400 pounds, roughly the equivalent of two people and a crewed or uncrewed eVTOL platform purely for cargo transport and delivery with a range of about 100 miles.

A hover car