Vanilla’s Long-Endurance UAS Takes Startup Showdown Prize
Photo: Robb Cohen Photography & Video.
by AUVSI News
The engineers at startup Vanilla Aircraft (Booth #2006) went long and skinny to reach a 10-plus day endurance time for their winged Vanilla 001, an effort that also netted them the $15,000 prize at AUVSI’s Startup Showdown.
Based on a sail-plane design, the wingspan is a narrow 36 feet; the length is just 14 feet. (The width is proprietary)
With a speed of 75 knots, the Vanilla 001 can fly 10,000 miles before having to land.
Judges at the Wednesday event said the impressive endurance was one reason the company won.
In his pitch to the judges, company Chief Operating Officer Jeremy Novara said the company’s three engineers started with the plane’s heavy fuel engine and designed around it. The Vanilla 001 uses about one-sixth of a gallon per hour, or about five percent of what a car on the highway uses. The company is planning for a 100-hour record flight for an internal combustion fuel aircraft.
They’ll use the $15,000 prize money to help cover expenses. “These guys are skinny not because they want to be skinny but because they haven’t eaten in seven years,” joked Tim Heely, CEO, to Unmanned Systems: Xponential Edition.
Show host Miles O’Brien asked Novara what the team will do now that they have won, and Novara said, “We are going back to flight test.”
