Aircraft
Tupan Unveils Turbine-powered Cargo UAV
Tupan Aircraft's unmanned cargo UAV family combines turbine and electric power to deliver high performance.
Tupan Aircraft
Brazil-based Tupan Aircraft is developing a family of high-speed vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (Photo: Tupan Aircraft)

Battery energy density is still a problem for designers who want to create electric aerial vehicles that can carry a decent payload for a useful distance, but the team at Tupan Aircraft believes it has come up with a reasonable solution. Tupan’s family of high-speed, vertical takeoff and landing (HSVTOL) drones combines electric propulsion with tiny jet-A fueled turbine engines to deliver speed, payload capacity, and redundancy in a compact and capable package.

Tupan is a new company founded by a group of Brazilian engineers with years of experience in propulsion system design, flight testing, aerodynamics, and autonomous flight. The company, based in Jacarei near São Paulo, is working with Turbomachine in São José dos Campos on development of the small turbine engines that are key to the design of the Tupan-1000, -2000, and -3000 vehicles.

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