The Airbus Helicopters VSR700 in an
unmanned
An uncrewed vehicle or unmanned vehicle is a vehicle without a person on board. Uncrewed vehicles can either be under telerobotic control—remote controlled or remote guided vehicles—or they can be autonomously controlled—autonomous vehicl ...
reconnaissance
In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities.
Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...
helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
currently being developed by
Airbus Helicopters
Airbus Helicopters SAS (formerly Eurocopter Group) is the helicopter manufacturer, helicopter manufacturing division of Airbus. It is the largest in the industry in terms of revenues and turbine helicopter deliveries. Its head office is located ...
(formerly Eurocopter).
Design and development
Developed by Airbus, the VSR700 is based on the
Cabri G2
The Guimbal Cabri G2 is a two-seat light helicopter produced by Hélicoptères Guimbal, and powered by a reciprocating engine. Designed by Bruno Guimbal, a former Eurocopter engineer, it had its origins in the 1980s, and the first demonstrator ...
light helicopter, developed and produced by
Hélicoptères Guimbal. Airbus was awarded a contract by the
French Navy
The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...
toward the end of 2017. With a maximum take-off weight around , it is a larger aircraft than the Austrian
Camcopter S-100
The Schiebel Camcopter S-100 is an Austrian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) using a rotorcraft design.
Design and development
Produced by the Austrian company Schiebel, it was developed from 2003 to 2005. With a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of ...
which the French Navy has trialled before.
The drone is designed to eventually deploy from
Mistral-class amphibious assault ship
The ''Mistral'' class is a class of five amphibious assault ships built by France. Also known as helicopter carriers, and referred to as "projection and command ships" (french: links=no, bâtiments de projection et de commandement or BPC), a '' ...
, as well as from frigates.
The prototype VSR700 performed its first flight at a drone test centre near
Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...
, France, on 8 November 2019.
VSR700 prototype performs first flight
/ref>
Specifications
See also
References
External links
VSR700
Unmanned helicopters
Unmanned military aircraft of France
Airborne military robots
2010s French helicopters
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