The US army recently awarded a 6.5 million dollar contract to Florida-based company Prioria Robotics. Their product is a peculiar bird-shaped airplane called “Maveric” that features flexible wings and inoculously bird-like looking flight characteristics. And yet, it can carry a variety of payloads ranging from simple stabilized telezoom cameras to thermal imaging. Thanks to the flexible wings the drone can even be launched from a small vehicle-mounted launch tube.

According to Prioria Robotics, “there was a Special Operations requirement for a plane that had a natural, biological look – it wasn’t supposed to look DoD-ish”
The army gets 36 drones as well as 12 ground control stations. Each Maveric drone costs to the tune of $100.000-$200.000.
A demo reel from 2011, which still looks kinda cool, can be found after the break.
Read more and comment
Connect
Connect with us on the following social media platforms.