Advanced Aircraft Company
About
About Advanced Aircraft Company
HAMR uses a gasoline engine to generate electrical power for distributed lift and cruise propulsion, combining vertical take-off with endurance above three and a half hours in selected configurations. Batteries provide reserve energy for controlled landing if the engine or generator fails, while field-replaceable arms and modules simplify repair away from a depot.
The aircraft can carry modular surveillance, communications or mapping payloads of up to roughly 11 pounds while remaining portable enough for a small team. Advanced Aircraft sells air vehicles and integration support to government and commercial programmes rather than operating a proprietary drone-service network.
Products
Supply
Supply chain relationships
- CubePilot
Inbound - Compute & Control - HAMR uses CubePilot Pixhawk Cube Blue autopilot hardware
Source - Vertiq
Inbound - actuation and motion control - Advanced Aircraft Company HAMR incorporates six Vertiq 81-08 G2 electric motors
Source - Microhard Systems
Inbound - Connectivity - Advanced Aircraft Company offers a Microhard pMDDL2450 radio configuration for HAMR
Source - Silvus Technologies
Inbound - Connectivity - Silvus SC4200 MANET radio option is offered for HAMR
Source - NASA
Outbound - Equipment - Advanced Aircraft Company supplies free-swinging tilt-wing UAV prototype design and build for NASA prototype contract
Source
Team
- Paul Allen - Advisor - As an advisor, he brings defence, enterprise-UAS and regulatory experience, including leadership of the first Group II UAS type-certification effort under 14 CFR 21.25.
- Bill Fredericks - Founder
Timeline
Events
- 2024-01-18 - Contract Award - AAC secures USD 1.25 million AFWERX Phase II contract
The Phase II award began the prototype stage of a three-phase Air Force development effort. AAC planned to adapt HAMR's hybrid-electric architecture for longer-endurance tactical missions. The contract provided non-dilutive programme funding tied to a defined defence prototype deliverable.
Source - 2022-12-06 - Contract Award - NASA contracts AAC to build free-swinging tilt-wing prototype
The concept uses freely tilting propeller-mounted wings to transition between hover and cruise. Removing wing-tilt actuators is intended to reduce aircraft weight, complexity and failure points. AAC founder Bill Fredericks is a named inventor on the NASA-owned patent underlying the prototype.
Source - 2022-02-09 - Contract Award - AAC wins AFWERX contract for tactical HAMR development
The programme applied HAMR's hybrid-electric endurance to tactical ISR requirements. AFWERX selected AAC to advance a next-generation tactical unmanned aircraft system. The award connected the commercial HAMR platform to a defined United States Air Force development programme.
Source - 2022-01-11 - Product Launch - Advanced Aircraft Company launches HAMR hybrid UAS
HAMR combines a multi-rotor airframe with computer-controlled hybrid gas-electric propulsion. Onboard batteries provide redundant landing power if the combustion engine fails. The launch moved AAC from aircraft development into commercial availability for long-endurance unmanned missions.
Source
Relations
Relationships
- NASA
Prototype Programme - NASA contracted AAC to design and build a free-swinging tilt-wing prototype.
- United States Air Force
Programme Customer - The United States Air Force, through AFWERX, awarded AAC contracts to develop HAMR for tactical missions.
Context
Comparable profiles
- Aerosense
stack adjacency - Fixed Wing Vtol Drone Oem
- A-techSYN
stack adjacency - Fixed Wing Vtol Drone Oem
- Vertical Aerospace
stack adjacency - Fixed Wing Vtol Drone Oem
- SwissDrones
stack adjacency - Fixed Wing Vtol Drone Oem
- Wingcopter
stack adjacency - Fixed Wing Vtol Drone Oem
Shared workflows
- Kronshtadt
workflow adjacency - Aerial Isr
- ZALA Aero
workflow adjacency - Aerial Isr
- Red Cat
workflow adjacency - Aerial Isr
- FlySight
workflow adjacency - Aerial Isr
- UMS SKELDAR
workflow adjacency - Aerial Isr
- AIRO Group
workflow adjacency - Aerial Isr
- Axon Vision
workflow adjacency - Aerial Isr
- Enigma Aerospace
workflow adjacency - Aerial Isr
- PRAMACOM-HT
workflow adjacency - Aerial Isr
- Oculus Aeris
workflow adjacency - Aerial Isr
- RT LTA Systems
workflow adjacency - Aerial Isr
- Threod Systems
workflow adjacency - Aerial Isr
Context tags
- Fixed-wing VTOL drone OEM - Stack Layer - Primary company research supports this operating context.
- Aerial ISR - Workflow - Primary company research supports this operating context.
Commercial
- AAC secures USD 1.25 million AFWERX Phase II contract
2024-01-18 · Order / contract · Advanced Aircraft Company secured a USD 1.25 million AFWERX Phase II contract to advance a next-generation tactical version of HAMR.
Source - NASA contracts AAC to build free-swinging tilt-wing prototype
2022-12-06 · Order / contract · NASA contracted Advanced Aircraft Company to design and build a transition-capable eVTOL prototype whose wings tilt through aerodynamic forces rather than powered actuators.
Source - AAC wins AFWERX contract for tactical HAMR development
2022-02-09 · Order / contract · Advanced Aircraft Company received an AFWERX contract to develop HAMR for United States Air Force tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
Source