59 That allows flight performances of 52 hour endurance with 350 kg of fuel and 50 kg of payload systems, or alternatively 20 hours of flight when equipped with 150 kg of fuel and 250 kg of payload. “There are four core engineering principles we focused on to achieve both of these,” Delaporte continued. The first is the aforementioned and unusual wing and tail configuration, utilising the concept of a ‘Prandtl box wing’. By sweeping and looping each wing to join with its tail, winglet drag is eliminated, and lift-generating surface area is maximised with respect to the total wingspan length extending out from the fuselage. Second, the craft’s two nacelles each house an engine – each a triple-inline, 100 hp, Trident 100TD2 – to ensure sufficient power delivery and runtime per flight. Third, each mounts a tractor propeller with a blade diameter close in size to the wingspan. Hence, when the engines run at take-off power, as well as the props pulling the aircraft forward, they blow air about the wings, creating a large pressure differential around them and thus forcibly generating very high wingborne lift. This enables the UAV to achieve take-off without needing the ground speeds typical of CTOL aircraft. “Lastly, we are completing a specially researched and designed variable-pitch propeller, which will be highly optimised for maximising torque and power efficiency for this aircraft, particularly at low velocities,” Delaporte noted. As a result of these and other engineering focuses since ExSTOL’s inception in 2015, the 1050 kg MTOW, 8 m wingspan craft is anticipated to need just 98 m D15 for take-off and 90 m D15 for landing – the ‘D15’ indicating that an obstacle of 15 m height can be overpassed after 98 m for take-off and within 90 m for landing. In essence, the air vehicle’s wheels will leave the ground after 45 m of take-off distance and, similarly, a full landing will be completed 45 m after the wheels touch down. That makes it compatible with a range of helicopter carriers and similar light carrier vessels, rather than depending on full-scale aircraft carriers or airfields, as the company notes. “Extensive CFD work and wind tunnel work were key to generating and optimising this design, especially thanks to the support of our neighbour and partner at Magny-Cours, Aero Concept Engineering,” Delaporte added. “Aero Concept Engineering owns and operates a wind tunnel facility highly proven in motorsport and now aerospace, and it has developed its own unique and very realistic CFD simulation software – ACE of Aircraft – specifically to simulate and improve the aerodynamic efficiency of low-speed UAVs [those travelling at less than Mach 0.35] for manufacturers that cannot yet afford extensive wind tunnel time.” RIEGL showcased two of their latest VUX-series Lidar sensors: the RIEGL VUX-100 and the RIEGL VUX-120. “The RIEGL VUX-100-25 provides an extra-large field of view of 160° and a very high pulse repetition rate of up to 1.5 MHz, enabling high productivity for surveying large, even complex areas,” said Michael Mayer, managing director of RiCOPTER UAV GmbH, a RIEGL company. “Typical applications include power line, railway track and pipeline inspection, assessing topography in open-cast mining, surveying of urban 2025 Paris Air Show & IDS Denmark | Show report Uncrewed Systems Technology | August/September 2025 Danielson Aircraft Systems’ ExSTOL UAV is engineered for short take-offs, such that it lifts off from the ground after just 45 m RIEGL’s new VUX-120-23 is designed to provide very dense results from 720 m flight altitudes, and can NFB-scan to measure densely packed, vertically oriented structures
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