by DRONELIFE Staff Author Ian J. McNabb
Minato City-based industrial conglomerate Kawasaki Heavy Industries recently successfully tested their helicopter-like “K-RACER-X2” VTOL at Ina Ski Resort, Nagano, Japan. Because of the declining population of Japan’s mountainous regions and the poorly maintained ground infrastructure, Kawasaki is responding to a necessity for vertical mobility solutions in Japan’s distant interior, resembling delivery of supplies to distant mountain huts within the ski resort-filled area.
The X2 relies on the sooner X1, but is more suited to high-altitude tasks, being able to carrying a payload of as much as 100kg to a height of over 3000m. Its maximum payload at lower altitudes is listed at 200 kg. These impressive upgrades result from increasing the scale of the principal rotor (powered by a motor much like that within the Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle) from 5m to 7m. This test flight is a results of the jointly-run “Project to Construct a Material Transport Platform Using Unmanned VTOL Vehicles” between Kawasaki and Ina City.
Kawasaki Unmanned VTOL: K-RACER X2
Helicopter-like conventionally-powered VTOLs have some significant benefits over their electric brethren, including easy infrastructure integration and increased payloads. The FAA granted a waiver to a Swiss company, Phoenix Air Unmanned, to check their version of the uncrewed helicopter in the US. High-altitude drone delivery programs have also been taking off recently, with a partnership between one other Japanese company and a Mongolian hospital leading to testing on considered one of the very best future regular delivery routes on this planet in Ulaanbataar.
More information on the Kawasaki K-RACER X2 and the testing in Ina City, in addition to footage of it in flight, could be found on their YouTube here.