Project Spearhead Use Cases, Market Potential & Strategy

Engineering
,
1

Hey everyone, I’m creating this thread hoping to discuss Project Spearhead potential use cases and market fit.

At its core, Project Spearhead will be a fixed wing eVTOL aircraft under FAA Part 107, 55 pounds or 25 kg MTOW. The difference from Project Quiver will be its wings, which will result in a heavier empty weight (leaving less capacity for payload) but a longer flight time.

We need to explore:

  • What it does
  • When it’d be preferred over Project Quiver
  • Which attachments can be used for both Quiver and Spearhead
  • Who would buy it
  • Is there a market need for such aircrafts

All ideas are welcome. Thanks for all your thoughts in advance.

Let’s brainstorm!

2 Likes
2

Regular missions:

  • Physical item airdrop or massive amount of data storage delivery
  • Long range survey or weather monitoring

Universal Equipment:

  • Any kind of sensors and cameras
  • Pitot (？？？)
  • Voice and camera chat equipment for remote ground operation

Special design:

  • Vehicle mounted launching and recovering system
  • Solar power charging while landed, for range extension

…

1 Like
3

I think it could be nice if we first do a thorough reevaluation, quite possibly there has likely been a shift in market conditions since 2022; in public awareness of UAVs and their capabilities, which could produce different or even unexpected use cases, as well as growth / build-up industry wise both in terms of potential competitors and expanded ecosystems with more available off the shelf or turn-key infrastructure, i.e tool for making wings easier or wider material availability.

Thereafter, we can begin a thorough requirements capture .

4

There might be several use cases, utilizing the longer flight time over multicopter configuration:

  • Precision Agriculture – Field Mapping & Crop Monitoring
    • NDVI/NDRE imaging
    • Growth stage monitoring
    • Irrigation & soil condition analysis
  • Construction Site & Earthworks Mapping
    • Stockpile volume calculations
    • Progress monitoring
    • Cut-fill analysis
  • Powerline/Roadway/Railway Inspection
  • Environmental Monitoring & Conservation
    • Forest health monitoring
    • Coastal or wetland surveillance
    • Wildlife tracking (with thermal)
  • Disaster Response
    • Damage assessment (tornadoes, floods)
    • Fire line monitoring (within a zone)
    • Missing person search in defined area
  • Academic Research Flights (Field-Based)
    • Terrain modeling, air quality, hydrology, archeology

Since we will be under Part 107, we are limited by LOS operation, which makes our options a bit limited. Normally, I would include delivery in remote areas (like medical supplies) but LOS limitation makes it a bit hard. I believe we have 3 options here:

  • Find a use case that would be meaningful for 3-5 km of range (in clear sky)
  • Follow a “leapfrog” approach i.e. the operator is not stationary. He/she is following the aircraft with a car/vehicle or changes their position as the aircraft moves further from them.
  • Go for FAA Part 135 certification that would allow BLOS operation but probably takes much longer time to achieve.
2 Likes
5

There actually is a process to get an waiver to the LOS requirements and still fly under part 107. I’m not exactly sure what it takes but I think it is quite achievable if we have good test data and assurance that we can detect and avoid other aircraft.

https://www.faa.gov/uas/commercial_operators/part_107_waivers

I still believe the best long term path for something like Spearhead would be to target cargo delivery in remote areas, which would require a full aircraft certification in the US.