Terrafugia launches long endurance UAV

  • September 8, 2021
  • William Payne

Geely Group Arizona-based subsidiary Terrafugia has launched an electric fixed wing VTOL UAV designed for commercial and high resolution precision agriculture and industrial applications. The SEEKER will be equipped with a range of long range precision sensors and cameras and will have a range and endurance that will allow it to carry out long range missions. Applications for the new UAV include commercial inspection missions for oil, gas, power, agriculture, mapping and security.

The new aircraft will be marketed under a new Terrafugia brand, Commaris. The SEEKER electric VTOL aircraft will be the inaugural product of the new brand.

The SEEKER has a long-endurance capability with more than three hours of flight time without a battery change and supporting multiple payload configurations at a top speed of over 60 mph. The UAV employs a composite airframe with a wingspan of 15 feet and a payload lifting capability of up to 10 pounds. Its modular design can be assembled and disassembled in the field in under three minutes.

The SEEKER’s design includes quiet electric motors that help it achieve a noise signature of only 40 decibels on the ground and near-silence at 500 feet AGL. This makes the UAV suitable for security, powerline patrols, and missions operating in noise-sensitive environments.

The SEEKER’s payload-carrying capability will be customisable with a variety of modular options, such as a 30x optical zoom EO/IR camera for inspection, a 120-megapixel high-resolution camera for terrain mapping and 3D modeling, a six-band multispectral camera designed for precision agriculture analysis, a LiDAR system, a laser methane sensor, or a corona discharge sensor, most of which will feature the ability to stream data to the operator in near-real time.

“We are very excited to launch our new brand, Commaris, and its first product, the SEEKER. This UAV is designed to perform a wide variety of commercial inspection operations in applications such as power, gas, oil, mapping, agriculture, and security,” said Kevin Colburn, President of Terrafugia and Commaris. “Our team of experienced aviation professionals has created an extremely capable, commercial-grade UAV that, in many situations, will deliver results that typical rotary-wing UAVs or helicopters cannot come close to providing.”