On Feb. 28, 2008, Mr. Mark Page, the Chief Scientist and aerospace designer for Swift Engineering, gave a talk titled “The Development of the Swift KB4 – Blended-Wing-Body UAV”.
The Swift KB4 is a small tactical un-manned air vehicle. KB4 is designed to fly 15 hours with 30 lbs of payload, with no pilot or runway. With only 10 feet of wingspan, the KB4 needed extremely efficient aerodynamics and structure. The Blended Wing Body configuration fulfills this requirement and offers many other benefits for UAV’s. The talk covered the development history of the KB family, and flight demonstrations that have been underway for the past year.
Mr. Page talked about the various capabilities of the craft, which largely result from the design of the bulbous composite “turrets” that protrude beneath the UAV. These gimbaled turrets can house many different components, such as cameras, lasers, laser dazzlers, searchlights and video. One configuration would house a steerable speaker with a 95 dB capability at 500 meters, which could be used as either a painful human deterrent, or for public announcements during natural disasters. A multi-purpose self-contained trailer was also designed to complement the KB4, storing the UAV itself, launcher, generator, and net for vehicle recovery. [Go to http://www.killerbeeuas.com/trailer-video.shtml to see a demonstration of the complete process of launching KB4 from the trailer.]
A small jet-powered KillerBee, which can launch itself from a runway, was also mentioned. YouTube videos of this vehicle can be viewed at http://video.aol.com/video-detail/jet-powered-swift-killer-bee-2/141680544 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7btkdrDNVWc .
Mark Page with KillerBee on pneumatic launcher
Source: Mark Page
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