10 Most Bizarre Drone Designs Ever Found

Drone or an unnamed aerial vehicle (UAV) is an aircraft without any human pilot on board. The device is a component of UAS (un-named aircraft system) that includes a ground-based controller, a UAV and a system which creates a communication between the two.

While the drones are specifically originated for military applications; its use and objectives are expanding to agricultural and scientific applications. From rescue operations to accidental discoveries, drones have become a crucial part of the enchanting discoveries.

In the past years, the drones have been modified from a simple machine to the complex one, they are now available in every shape and size, in different configurations you ever wanted. So to help you knowing more about drones we have compiled a list of most bizarre drone designs ever built.

1. Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk

Source = Wikipedia

Initially designed by Ryan Aeronautical, the Global Hawk is an unnamed UAV which provides a wide overview and excellent surveillance using SAR (synthetic aperture radar) and long-range infrared sensors with loiter (in aviation, loiter is a phase of light) over selected areas.

It comprises of RQ-4 air vehicle and different equipments such as sensor packages and Mission Control Element.

Most people think that drones usually come in small size, but this global hawk is somewhat different and has typical drone appearance with huge size. In addition, it also holds a world record for distance traveled by a UAV at 8,214.44miles. (15.1)

2. Gyrodyne QH-50 DASH

Source = Airandspace

Gyrodyne QH-50 DASH is another bizarre drone which was designed mainly to use it as a long-range anti-submarine weapon. Many people found it really weird but this anti-marine submarine drone was pretty successful. The drone was capable of deploying nuclear torpedoes, and depth charges 20 miles away from its ship. A long cylindrical float was added to Gyrodyne QH-50 DASH corner, each float was able to rotate 90 degrees from horizontal and a pad was added at the end for a safe landing on hard surfaces.

3. Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle

Source = Army-technology

Developed by Northrop Grumman for the US Army, the Long Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle is a long-range hybrid airship system. It can be operated either by radio control or manually.

Northrop Grumman teamed up with HAV (Hybrid Air Vehicles) for its development. The design of this drone is completely based on the HAV3049 (a vehicle designed by HAV) and is made completely of laminated fabric. It measures 91 m in length with a height of 26m. The vehicle carries sensors, signal intelligence, full motion video and other communications relay system.

4. MMIST SnowGoose Cargo UAV

Source = Design-engineering

By far the MMIST SnowGoose Cargo UAV is the most bizarre drone design ever encountered in the history. The drone was originally designed for leaflet dispensing but supports different missions with its 6 cargo bays. Its bizarre design is designed to deliver the tons of payload quickly and instantly. According to the design it can carry over 1000 kgs up to 150 kms per day while placing the loads within 100 ft at a point, then it can also perform vertical take offs.

5. Oblique Wing Research Aircraft

Source = Wp

NASA built this amazing remote aircraft to make sure that wing swings wouldn’t make some unmanageable flight characteristics, which it did.

The oblique Wing was specifically designed to explore the concept of a pivoting wing. NASA indicated that an oblique wing might achieve twice the fuel economy of an aircraft which includes more conventional wings. Oblique Wing is a variation on the swing-wing design, which retains the center of gravity as the angle is changed.

NASA then created the piloted AD-1 which could easily be rotated on its center pivot so that it could set the accurate angle for the speed at which plane is flying. (15.2)

6. The Skate Drone

Source = Bbcimg

The Skate Drone is another drone with a bizarre design that can easily be folded into the lunch box. Designed by Aurora Flight Sciences, the Skate drone is $38,000 drone launched by hand and could fly for an hour.

It can fly more than 3 miles while sharing video back to the pilot in the regular visual or in infrared form. It is very lightweight and made mostly of Styrofoam.

The Skate Drone is very beneficial for soldiers to watch for the battlefield from above. Aurora’s has merged the simplicity and fixed-wing platform in one drone. (15.3)

7. Bird’s Eye Drone

Source = Popsci

Designed by Bird Aerospace, Bird’s Eye Drone comes in a cylinder that fires up to 300 feet into the air and then flies for up to 3 hours. Images from the drone can be stored and collected on the SD card. It can stream HD video back to a pilot from 15-20 miles away. It has a Styrofoam body like the Skate and can be launched instantly on the battlefield.

8. The Alliant RQ-6 Outrider

Source = Skytamer

The Alliant RQ-6 Outrider is the funny yet bizarre designed UAV designed to provide real-time surveillance and target information to the US Marine corps, US Navy units and US Army brigades. The navy changed everything in the drone including its airframe from a fiber construction to aluminum construction. Both Army and Navy kept on changing the requirements through the development of the program.

The Army finally dismissed the entire program and chose simpler and available RQ-& shadow UAV from AAI.

9. Nimbus Eos Xi

Source = Nimbus

The gasoline-powered UAV Nimbus Eos Xi is a part of ultralight aircraft, and a part hangs glider that uses adjustable control surfaces to manage the flight. It is bizarrely designed drone with no moving parts. It uses only the extended tail assembly’s for control and relies on the wings to enhance stability. The wing has multi-layer construction and gives the strength, lightness and other aerodynamic characteristics.

10. Hybrid Drone

Source = Popsci

As the name implies this drone combines two drone body types - Predator-style which are excellent at forwarding momentum and requires a runway to takeoff, other is quadrotors which are good at landing vertically but finds difficult flying forward. This bizarrely designed drone created by Latitude engineering Group is best of all, the rotors are powered by motors which allow the drone to take off and requires only a small launch site. It has 15 hours of endurance and carries a sensor system. (15.4)