Schiebel has concluded the shipboard trials of its unmanned S-100 Camcopter aboard the Norwegian Coast Guard icebreaker KV Svalbard. During the trials, the S-100 teamed with a Sikorsky Sea King helicopter to simulate man-overboard recovery operations.
The S-100 located the man-overboard dummy and transmitted positioning data and live images back to the Svalbard using a suite of equipment including the Overwatch Imaging PT-8 Oceanwatch wide-area maritime surveillance payload, the L3 Harris Wescam MX-10 real-time Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR) camera, and Radionor’s Maritime Broadband Radio (MBR) link. It was also able to be launched in conditions up to Sea State 5 with the Schiebel-designed harpoon system.
“The S-100 is the only VTOL UAS outside of the United States that is routinely flying from ships and, in addition, it is capable of carrying a multitude of payloads,” said Schiebel Group chairman Hans Georg Schiebel.
According to Schiebel, the S-100 has a beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) range of 108 nm, a service ceiling of 18,000 feet, and can stay aloft for up to 10 hours with a 75-pound payload. It runs on either avgas or JP-5 fuels and can operate in environments where GPS is not available.