Autonomous Hybrid Propulsion Lighter Than Air Platforms for Urban Air Mobility
Fort Worth-based Galaxy Unmanned Systems LLC, a TechFW member company, has been awarded $1.25 million to continue building on its airspace integration roadmap.
This Direct to Phase Two (D2P2) award will facilitate the construction and flight demonstration of a Galaxy prototype unmanned airship for Advanced Air Mobility research. The Phase 2 effort consists of adapting Phase 1 simulations and lessons learned from prototype work on previous Phase 2 awards, commercial, dual-use applications and Air Force-specific feedback and considerations.
Galaxy Unmanned Systems L.L.C. is led by brothers Tony and Jason White, who worked their way up through the commercial side of the UAS industry and then the Department of Defense side, providing a well-balanced experience and skill matrix that includes many of the fundamentals necessary to innovate and facilitate most unmanned systems applications. Their combined 40+ years of work includes concept, design, manufacturing, certification, testing, payload configuration, subsystem integration, documentation, training and operations.
Galaxy’s research and development platform concept is called Persistent Airborne Laboratory, or PAL. Initially, the airship will have an APU-generated electric propulsion system and then graduate to an augmented solar reversible hydrogen fuel cell to power the four electric motors — two left and two right — mounted close to the latitudinal axis of the non-ridged envelope.
Galaxy Unmanned Systems LLC (GUS) will enlist Principal Investigators Dr. Kamesh Subbarao and Dr. Animesh Chakravarthy, long-term research partners from the University of Texas at Arlington.
For more information about GUS and the progress it is making toward full National Airspace System (NAS) integration for drones and Urban Air Mobility, visit www.galaxyuas.com.
