Eye in the sky
A low cost rugged aerial platform that can be used for damage assesment, search and rescue, surveillance, tracking of vehicles and vessels, photography and reconnaissance.
The small size and low radar signature of our system make it an option for insertion and recovery of observation teams who could fly themselves in.
As the TOAD can loiter for up to 6 hours at a time, it can provide perimeter control or convoy escort duties and the low cost of ownership enables you to add air surveillance over every one of them.
Think of it as a 21st century horse for a new kind of cavalry, moving an operator and supplies quickly and stealthily.
Stealthy design
The TOAD incorporate a significant number of characteristics that make this aircraft stealthy and low profile.
- The fiber hull leaves a very low electro magnetic signature, planned improvements in the rotor design will lower the radar signature even more.
- The piston engine, besides its low noise and low fuel consumption, generates little heat compared to the usual turbine engines found on helicopters.
- A small overall size makes it easy to camouflage on the ground and make visual detection more difficult.
Better than a UAV
Aerial observation users are eyeing UAVs as the "do-it-all miracle solution" but they lack the instant analysis an onboard human observer can provide, have narrow field of view (the "looking through a soda straw" problem) and present a logistical and legal nightmare for deployment in civilian air space.
Forward deployable
The TOAD can take off from improvised airfields. Less than 200 feet is all that is usually needed to take off. Landing can almot be done vertically.
This Very Short Take Off and Landing (VSTOL) remove the need for an airport, thus it is not obvious where you are going to fly from (Many UAV used in Kosovo were shot down because they were using a predictable flight path from Italy).
The Rotax 912 turbo compressed based motor runs on 15 liters of automobile gas per hour on average, sipping gasoline instead of guzzling it like commonly used turbine helicopter engines.
Maintenance is a breeze and can be done in rough conditions. The autogyro has a simple design without much of the complex and fragile sub systems of its bigger helicopter cousins.
Embedded road-mobile asset
The road-able TOAD fits on a trailer and a kit to transport it in the back of a pickup truck is being designed. This allows the deployment of air assets very close to where they are needed. The TOAD can litterally be embedded with the unit it is going to support.
An observer can use a second seat to assist and provide instant information to his unit using his radio or beaming back pictures captured by the onboard cameras.
Benefits for law enforcement agencies
There are many agencies and smaller municipalities that operate on a very limited budget in their aviation department, or have no aviation department and are evaluating the bang per buck scenario of the added expense of introducing an aviation unit.
We can also find smaller communities with a large land area that simply cannot afford a helicopter or its maintenance despite the usefulness of such a resource. The typical gyroplane has approximately a 50% reduction in initial capital outlay and a 50% reduction in direct operating costs when compared to a comparable size helicopter.
So from a fiscal standpoint the autogyro is a very attractive substitute for a helicopter.
Can it do the mission? Given that a majority of mission time is either on patrol or orbiting over a specific site at low speed, the gyroplane can certainly fill 80 to 90 % of a unit's mission role. If the unit is solely operating fixed wing aircraft, the gyroplane can provide rotary wing flexibility and greater diversity than a Cessna 182. Think for a minute of the added benefit a small town in Kansas would have in a missing person case by employing a modern gyroplane. If you are looking at rappelling a SWAT team or a water rescue mission the gyroplane is out of its element, you will need a helicopter for these types of missions.
A small community or even medium sized town would greatly benefit from the assets of an aviation unit and the employment of gyroplanes.
Original article about the "Benefits for Law Enforcement Agencies" courtesy of Kenneth Fietz in EzineArticles.com.
