Freewing has built and flown a half dozen subscale Manta UAVs, a special kind of Freewing Tilt-Body UAV designed to do a full, sustained hover, as opposed to the near-hover of the Scorpion. The Manta Tilt-Body is essentially a Scorpion Tilt-Body whose booms have been replaced by elevons on the centerbody. Likewise, the vertical stabs on the Scorpion booms have been moved up onto the centerbody, and rudders added. Thus movable surfaces governing all three axes are present in the propwash. The Manta is capable of the near-hover of the Scorpion, but can also maneuver in a full hover -- during which the pivoting wings have the virtue of being insensitive to horizontal winds. In addition to its full VTOL capability, the Manta shares the Scorpion's other Freewing Tilt-Body virtues, including being the only kind of thrust-vectored aircraft with autostable transitions in and out of hover, automatic damping of turbulence for unparalleled image quality, and so on.
Upon customer order, Freewing is willing to develop a full-hover kit for the Scorpion Model 100-60 and/or Scorpion Model 60-25. We would be very interested in any comments you may have.
Manta prototypes 1992-3, and in UMD wind tunnel 1994
Manta 60-25 as proposed to USMC in 1997
Top of page: The Manta climbing out after transitioning to horizontal (cruise) flight mode.
Bottom of page, left to right: The Manta on its portable dolly launcher; Manta rising vertically from launcher; being prepared for tests at the Glenn L. Martin Wind Tunnel at the University of Maryland.