Ventura-based Mayman Aerospace has completed a flight test of its Razor vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) testbed at a US military facility in Southern California.
The event is part of a development process to expand the company’s tactical portfolio based on its existing Razor P100 technology.
Among the areas validated in the recent trial were the prototype’s command and control solution, flight controls, software, avionics, and thrust vectoring mechanisms.
Metrics also covered the aircraft’s VTOL and hover to high-speed flight performance.
“During these tests, we executed seven autonomous mission sets, with all systems operating flawlessly,” Mayman Aerospace Chief Engineer Dr. Manu Sharma explained.
“A key objective was to validate recent updates to our flight software and control laws, especially the transition from hover mode with outward-canted engines to coordinated winged flight.”
“This transition is critical for our operational capabilities, and accumulating more autonomous flight time during take-offs and landings further strengthens our confidence in the system.”
The Razor VTOL
The Razor can deploy without assistive launch systems and infrastructure to support missions in austere domains.
The aircraft has a top speed of 500 miles (805 kilometers) per hour and is reconfigurable into a support vehicle to extend the range of small air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, providing effective precision strikes against threats more than 200 miles (322 kilometers) away.
Once in production, the system will be offered as an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, target designator, and logistics asset.
“As a multi-role, dual-use technology, RAZOR is redefining the perspectives of defense commanders and civilian leaders regarding autonomous VTOL applications,” Mayman Aerospace CEO and Founder David Mayman stated.
“We are a software-driven hardware company, and our team is achieving performance levels previously thought unattainable.”
Mayman will facilitate additional tests later this year to advance the Razor VTOL’s development.