改变一切：美国无人机展亮点大放送

航空环境公司的长续航无人机Puma

    小型无人机如果用于民用用途，一般都是用来检测输电线、农田或基础设施的情况。但小型无人机的一个主要缺限就是其续航能力不足。小型固定翼无人机的电量通常只够飞行一两个小时。

    从这个角度上看，加州门罗维亚市的航空环境公司（AeroVironment）研发的固定翼无人机Puma AE创下的9小时11分钟的飞行纪录可谓意义重大。Puma无人机只有13磅重，让它起飞也非常简单，操作者只要把它举起来，像抛足球一样把它抛出去就行了。这架无人机最近还通过了美国联邦航空管理局（the Federal Aviation Administration）的商业飞行测试，而这也是第一次针对此类小型无人机的商业飞行测试。现在Puma已经获准在北极地区进行商业飞行，再过几年，等解决了美国航空规定方面的限制后，它也将可以在美国境内进行商业飞行。

    Puma AE无人机利用太阳能电池技术提高了续航时间。虽然目前该机型仍处于试验阶段，但是明年它应该就会投入量产。届时，在北极工作的商业公司和科研团体就将拥有一款物美价廉、能长时间航行的航空成像设备了。

AeroVironment's long-endurance Puma

    One of the limiting factors of small UAS -- the kind that civilians might use to inspect power lines, food crops, or infrastructure -- is endurance. Small fixed-wing UAS can often only get an hour (maybe two) of power.

    So it's significant that Monrovia, Calif.-based AeroVironment's fixed-wing Puma AE recently logged a continuous flight lasting 9 hours and 11 minutes. The 13-pound, hand-launched Puma (to take off, the operator simply heaves it into the air like a football) also recently received a first-of-its-kind commercial flight certification from the Federal Aviation Administration, clearing it for commercial operation in the Arctic and, in a few years when national airspace regulations are settled, in the U.S.

    Though currently experimental, the solar-cell-augmented Puma AE should be ready for production sometime next year, offering commercial companies and research groups working in the Arctic an affordable, long-endurance source of aerial imagery.