FLARES 2.0 Perfect Safety Streak Surpasses 200 Flights
FLARES 2.0, Hood Tech’s Flying Launch and Recovery System, last week logged its 206th flight while maintaining a perfect safety record, dating back to Jan. 2019. The team celebrated the milestone briefly, as envelope expansion testing led to a sequence of three FLARES captures in rapid... - May 21, 2020
FLARES 2.0 Establishes Low-Gee Skyhook Record
Hood Tech staff noted record-low capture loads for a fixed-wing aircraft recovery from free-flight. "Soft-arrest Skyhook recovery with FLARES enables opportunities for fixed-wing aircraft that were not originally designed with Skyhook-recovery in mind," explains Hood Tech engineer and 1999 Skyhook co-inventor, Cory Roeseler. With FLARES, a long endurance UAV enjoys the benefits of VTOL without having to carry its VTOL claptrap for the entire flight. - November 19, 2019
FLARES 2.0 Demonstrates VTOL Operations in a Forest Clearing
Hood Tech’s next generation Flying Launch and Recovery System (FLARES 2.0) this month demonstrated flight operations from a 200 foot forest clearing, surrounded by 60-140 foot trees. A fixed-wing UAV was launched into flight and recovered from flight, both operations occurring above the... - October 31, 2019
FLARES 2.0 Logs 106 Consecutive Flights with a Perfect Safety Record
FLARES 2.0, Hood Tech’s “Flying Launch and Recovery System” has accumulated 106 consecutive flights with a perfect safety record, in 2019. Dating back to January of 2019, Hood Tech staff has torture-tested the system in wind gusts to 30mph, at density altitude of 9,600 feet, and... - October 08, 2019
FLARES 2.0 Establishes Scan Eagle Capture Energy Record
FLARES 2.0 recovered a 28.1 kg Scan Eagle dummy at 75 knots closing speed. The 20.9 kJ capture energy establishes a new record. This second-generation Mast Augmented Recovery System (MARS 2,) is omnidirectional, can be used with any Scan Eagle 1, 2 or 3 aircraft variant in up to 30mph wind and packs into a single “coffin.” The record-setting capture occurred during the 78th consecutive incident-free flight of FLARES 2.0. - August 29, 2019
FLARES 2.0 Demonstrates Nominal Performance in Wind
Flight test data indicates that Hood Tech’s Flying Launch and Recovery System (FLARES 2.0) multicopter performs nominally in up to 22 knot wind. “FLARES achieves robustness by using generously-sized components, and redundancy,” states Hood Tech President, Dr. Andy von Flotow,... - July 20, 2019
FLARES 2.0 Demonstrates High DA Power Margin
Flight test data indicates that Hood Tech’s Flying Launch and Recovery System (FLARES 2.0) multicopter used only 58% throttle at 9600ft density altitude. “FLARES achieves robustness by using generously-sized components, and redundancy,” states Hood Tech President, Dr. Andy von Flotow. “UAVs that carry their VTOL-stuff for the entire mission invariably skimp on VTOL component sizing, sacrificing redundancy, power margin and high/hot capability.” - June 19, 2019
Hood Tech Upgrades Flying Launch and Recovery System (FLARES 2.0)
Originally sized with comfortable margin when handling a 25kg ScanEagle, Hood Tech has recently extended the capacity of its Flying Launch and Recovery System (FLARES) to handle aircraft weighing up to 45kg. This capacity includes all existing ScanEagle/ScanEagle3 variants. Further, modification... - March 21, 2019