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Bell shows off a new drone “APT”

  2017-12-11

introduce:Bell shows off a new drone “APT”APT  DRONE— short for Automatic Pod Transport  FORT WORTH, Texas—The drone that delivers a package to your doorstep may someday be built by Bell Helicopter. The Fort Worth-based aviation giant is moving

Bell shows off a new drone “APT”

Bell shows off a new drone “APT”
APT DRONE— short for Automatic Pod Transport
FORT WORTH, Texas—The drone that delivers a package to your doorstep may someday be built by Bell Helicopter.
The Fort Worth-based aviation giant is moving aggressively into the autonomous vehicle business and this week introduced one called APT — short for Automatic Pod Transport — that could be employed by the military or retailers like Amazon.com.
"We think the opportunity for a vehicle like this is now," said Scott Drennan, Bell's director of innovation.
Bell's drone is a "modular, scalable vehicle" that can be adapted to meet a customer's needs, Drennan said. Depending on the model, it can be small enough to handle loads up to 15 pounds, or big enough to transport 1,000 pounds.
Bell says it can fly farther and faster than many of its competitors.
"Bell can engineer, build, certify, field and maintain these vehicles in ways that some of these newcomers cannot," Drennan said. "That doesn't mean we ignore them. Our messaging was around what our core business is."
There have been plenty of stories about Amazon's efforts to develop drone technology that can delet off a package at your house.
And while that makes for great conversation, Drennan said there are still plenty of challenges before a drone can safely do that. Clearing up numerous regulatory and safety issues will take time, Drennan said.
Such issues include limited flying time and coordination with other aircraft.
"We're pretty certain that's going to take a lot more than folks have been talking about lately because that airspace around people's yards is nonstandard," Drennan said. "But you can imagine a vehicle like (APT) this doing that? Ten to 15 pounds of payload. All electric. That's typically what customers like and they're satisfied with the range and speed and simplicity of the vehicle."
The first application for APT is likely to be military, which has fewer regulatory obstacles to sort out.
Bell officials described a scenario in which a larger autonomous vehicle could deliver up to 1,000 pounds of ammunition to soldiers in a combat situation without risking a flight crew to get it there.
"The military is already doing that today," said Mitch Snyder, Bell Helicopter president and CEO. "They're logistically moving elements of their logistic supply and resupply through some autonomous vehicles but we believe we're going to bring some new ways of doing it, more quicker ways of doing it."

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