BAE Systems HERTI

BAE Systems · United Kingdom · first flew 2004 · reconnaissance aircraft

The BAE Systems HERTI, short for High Endurance Rapid Technology Insertion, was a British reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle. It was developed in Warton, England.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	Mid-mounted, straight
E — Engines	1 × piston, fuselage-mounted
F — Fuselage	5 m fuselage
T — Tail	V-tail

WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.

Spot it by:

Uncrewed motor-glider-based aircraft with a V-tail
Rotax 914 piston engine driving a pusher propeller
Wingspan of about 12 m against a length of only about 5 m

Look for a long-winged, glider-like unmanned aircraft based on the J-6 Fregata motor glider airframe.

Specifications

The BAE Systems HERTI has a length of 5 m (16 ft).
It has a wingspan of 11.99 m (39 ft).
Typical crew: 0.

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

Its airframe was based on the J-6 Fregata motor glider designed by Jaroslaw Janowski of J&AS Aero Design in Poland. Its first flight was in December 2004 at the Woomera test range in Australia, and it was also the first UAV to fly in the UK with the flight certified by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Variants

The first vehicles had a maximum takeoff weight of 450 kg and a payload of about 150 kg, and the production example was expected to weigh about 750 kg. An armed version, the BAE Fury, was announced in 2008.

Where you'll see it

The first production example was to be delivered by Slingsby Aviation to BAE Systems at the end of November 2007. The production variant had an endurance of up to 20 hours, and a HERTI was deployed to Afghanistan under Project Morrigan, flying from Camp Bastion.

Related aircraft

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