Natilus, a California-based aerospace start-up developing autonomous cargo airplanes, has successfully flown a subscale technology demonstrator for the first time. The company intends to introduce a family of remotely piloted cargo freighters featuring a unique blended-wing-body (BWB) design that will be capable of carrying more cargo than traditional airplanes of comparable size. Its initial offering will be the Kona, the smallest model in its planned fleet.
Natilus says the initial flight tests of its quarter-scale Kona demonstrator aircraft have validated the performance of the BWB design after three years of extensive wind-tunnel testing. The flights took off from a private runway in Southern California, east of San Diego. During the flights, the aircraft reached speeds of about 70 mph (110 kph), according to Natilus.
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