News
December 2010: Viking Delivers Second Wolverine III Helicopter UAV to Kansas State University at Salina
Viking Aerospace has delivered the second Wolverine III helicopter UAV to Kansas State University at Salina for use in thier unmanned aircraft system (UAS) pilot training program. For more information on K State Salina click here.
November 2010: FAA Issues COA for B1-100 Helicopter UAV
The Aeroscout B1-100 helicopter UAV has been issued an FAA Certificate of Authorization (COA) for operation in the US National Airspace (NAS). Information on the B1-100 is available here.
October 2010: Viking Aerospace Begins Tethered Power Tests of the Wolverine III UAS
Viking Aerospace has begun testing our Wolverine III UAS with a thethered power supply. The tethered power setup allows us to keep the Wolverine III in the air indefinitely. This is primarily focused on endurance and structural fatigue testing, but may lead to the development of a tethered UAS system, that can operate from a roving ground vehicle. A prelimiary video can be seen here.
September 2010: Kansas State University Salina Procures Wolverine III UAS
Kansas State University Salina has procured a Wolverine III UAS consisting of the helicopter UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicle), ground control station, and support equipment for use in their UAV training program that is currently building momentum. The Wolverine III will be used for student training, airspace integration research, and search and rescue research in Kansas. To see the full press release please click here.
May 2010: Viking Aerospace Releases Wolverine III Electric Helicopter UAS
The Wolverine III is an all electric, fully automatic (wePilot1000 FCS), helicopter which can be operated with, or without a ground control station. Novatel GPS position and velocity control is available without a ground station. With a ground station, programmable waypoint tracking, automatic takeoff and automatic landing is easily accomplished. The flight control system is housed in a rugged machined aluminum enclosure which is positioned completely within the side-frames of the helicopter. This not only protects the flight control system, but also minimizes the number of cables which are outside the core autopilot box, therefore increasing reliability and ease of maintenance.
In order to achieve high endurance, robust flight control methodologies are used in concert with a flybarless rotorhead designed by Minicopter.
Click here for the Wolverine brochure: 
Wolverine III Brochure.pdf (2.3MB)
The Wolverine III Helicopter UAS is Available in 2 and 3 Blade Configurations
January 2010: Antarctic UAS Missions
Viking Aerospace has returned from a successful UAS campaign in McMurdo, Antarctica. Viking provided piloting and engineering services for the Meridian UAS to the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets ( www.cresis.ku.edu) at the University of Kansas. Viking team members spent 6 weeks at McMurdo station in Antarctica supporting both Meridian and Yak-54 UAS operations from the Pegasus Ice Runway. Both of these vehicles use the wePilot 2000 as their primary flight control systems. Details of the operation are described in an article in Scientific American here.
Fall 2009: The Meridian UAS
Viking Aerospace supports National Science Foundation Science and Technology Program CReSIS (Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets www.cresis.ku.edu). Viking’s deliverables for the program include development of the automatic flight control system for Meridian UAV, integration support, flight test support, and 2 UAV flight test pilots. Initial flight tests have been conducted at Fort Riley Kansas and Dugway Proving Grounds Utah. The Meridian UAV (pictured right) was developed by the Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Kansas (www.ae.engr.ku.edu). CReSIS is an international center headquarted at The University of Kansas with the mission of developing new technologies and computer models to measure and predict the response of sea level change to the mass balance of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.
August 2009: Cal Poly Helicopter Flight Testing
Viking completes initial autonomous flights of 150lb helicopter contributed by Northrop Grumman. Using its wePilot helicopter flight control system, Viking was able to achieve fully automatic flight of the vehicle in several days onsite at CalPoly San Louis Obispo, who now retains and maintains the system as part of their Unmanned Systems Laboratory.
October 2009: Virginia Tech RMAX
Viking has successfully completed integration of our wePilot complete automatic flight control system into a Virginia Tech Yamaha RMAX helicopter in support of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency program deliverables. The system was delivered complete with automatic camera triggering capabilities which enables this portion of the payload operation to be an autonomous capability of the system.