The Black Hornet drone seems developed for the fever swamps of the internet. It is similar to the size and weight of a sparrow. The body of Black Hornet is designed like a tiny helicopter, consisting of a camera in place of the cockpit. This is used by the military special forces, and the FLIR Systems reported the new iteration of the design as the Black Hornet 3.
At the Association of the United States Army 2018 exposition in Washington, D.C., Black Hornet-maker FLIR showed off the new way to bring the drone into combat, a miniature hanger to be used by four drones, which is the size of a large breadbox and is known as the Vehicle Reconnaissance System.
FLIR tends to the term “personal reconnaissance system” or PRS. With the capabilities of indoor flight, the current generation Black Hornet gives a complete observation for the mission.
The Black Hornet 3 is representative of FLIR’s new focus on producing complete-solution technology, and thus, involves a key role in supporting the military customers.
FLIR’s president and CEO, James Cannon said that, “We are excited to bring this advanced Black Hornet 3 to our war fighters and first responders”.
The drones could fly a way-point path drawn out by a human operator with the help of GPS, or be controlled directly by the human pilot. With two radio channels, the system can hold two drones flying at once, either with one human watching on a split screen or two separate pilots steering the bird-sized drones.
The drones have a range of 1.25 miles, can fly for up to 25 minutes, and top out at a speed of around 13 mph. The drones can recharge in their heated cassettes, if it cannot fly. They can be swapped, slotting a new drone and charger into the old bay.
In the future, drones would become an important feature that can be extended to other vehicles. With improved automation and image processing, the little human-piloted scout robot could become an ambient surveillance capability.
Watch a video of Hands-on with FLIR Black Hornet VRS at AUSA 2018:
