Rotor unveils R550X uncrewed helicopter
Rotor Technologies, a developer of autonomous aircraft, has unveiled its new R550X uncrewed civilian helicopter
The aircraft, based on the Robinson R44 Raven II, is designed to lift loads of up to 550kg with no pilot onboard, with flight times of over three hours, and a top speed of 240km/h.
Rotor stated that these specifications give the R550X the ability to perform operations ‘beyond the reach of drones and eVTOLs’ in areas such as firefighting, crop dusting, and maritime operations.
“The R550X is going to bring huge safety and economic benefits to a wide range of helicopter use cases,” said Hector Xu, CEO of Rotor Technologies. “Demonstrating the impact of autonomy in dangerous missions like crop dusting and aerial firefighting is the first step towards our vision for safe and accessible vertical flight.”
The R550X can fly safely in a range of operating environments, including at nighttime and in limited visibility. Rotor’s onboard software is also capable of preventing common causes of helicopter accidents, such as inadvertent entry into instrument meteorological conditions (IIMC), vortex ring state, mast bumping, loss of control, and controlled flight into terrain (CFIT).
Two R550Xs are now in production, following the receipt by Rotor of letters of intent from agricultural aircraft operators. The two helicopters will be used for crop dusting.
The first commercial operations using the R550X are expected to begin in the US next year, with international operations to follow.
Rotor Technologies successfully completed an initial flight using an R22 equipped with its Cloudpilot remote operating system in December 2022.