The 650 Spark drone, designed and built by Elbit Systems, was unveiled Feb. 21 at the 2024 Singapore Air Show. (Elbit)
SINGAPORE AIRSHOW — Israeli firm Elbit, well known for its drones, unveiled a new propeller-driven aircraft here today, powered by what executives called an “over-powered” engine to give it speed, payload and the ability to loiter for a day or more.
“it’s different from everything we’ve done so far,” Ziv Avni, head of marketing and business development at the Israeli firm, said in an interview next to the Hermes 650 Spark, which was shrouded in a golden sheet ahead of its official unveiling. The Hermes family of unmanned systems is a core part of Elbit’s product line, with the company claiming last year that 85 percent of the Israeli military’s drone fleet comes from the firm.
The 650 Spark, designed for short takeoffs, uses satellite communication so “theoretically, you can take off at one point, fly 24 hours straight and land in a different location.”
That over-powered engine allows it to fly at speeds between 55 knots to 120 knots. “If you need to get to the mission area fast, you can fly as fast, as high as 120,” Avni said. “When you get to the mission area, of course, you want to maximize endurance and hang out.”
The aircraft should be relatively cheap to maintain, in part, thanks to the engine. “The second thing you gain by having an over-powered engine is the fact that most of the time it works, it’s relatively low RPM,” he said. “So the stress on the engine, you know, it’s relatively low,” especially on takeoffs and landings.
“We also integrated tools for predictive maintenance. So, because it’s wired with a lot of sensors and ways we can evaluate the situation of the platform at any given moment, we use algorithms in order to do predictive maintenance. All this,” he added, “is resulting in low lifecycle costs for the platform.”
The aircraft has six hard points, but the company would not discuss whether it would carry weapons. It possesses two bays for sensors and the combination of design and its open architecture mean sensors can be swapped in and out within an hour. A company press release claims an overall “useful load” of 260kg.
Elbit already has a customer for the aircraft but would not divulge which country had bought it. The Israeli firm developed the plane on its own dime. “It’s an independent development. I can say that we are under contract for this platform, but we’re not disclosing the customer at this point,” Avni said.
