The ultimate Medevec platform – the AirMule
This post is also available in: 
עברית (Hebrew)
The Urban Aeronautics AirMule ducted fan Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft has been equipped with new propellers. Ii will improve the performance of this special VTOL platform.
Urban Aeronautics the Israeli company that is developing the vertical take off and land (VTOL) AirMule has manufactured 12 composite rotor blades , for the two new six bladed rotors that are currently installed on the aircraft . These rotors have replaced the four bladed rotors that have been used since the beginning of 2010.
The new rotors have the same diameter and RPM as the original four bladed sets , but are expected to increase the payload by approximately 200 Kilograms and are much closer to the final production version than the initial rotors were.
Urban Aeronautics is accelerating the assembly of a second AirMule prototype in preparation for a series of demonstration flights requested by potential customers.
The second prototype is intended primarily as a reserve aircraft to ensure uninterrupted flight testing once mission demonstrations to customers (presently planned for mid 2014) are underway.
AirMule’s Auto-Land system, which will enable the aircraft to guide itself to a touchdown over any high contrast marker (or alternatively–a laser spot) placed at the precise landing location in the combat zone.
This Auto-Land feature will be the final step towards enabling fully autonomous takeoff to landing flight paths using pre-programmed routes. Accurate positioning will be maintained en-route by an on-board Inertial Navigation System (INS) in conjunction with a GPS or, alternatively, a Doppler navigation unit.
The AirMule wil perform resupply missions to front line figting soldiers and medical evacuation (MedEvac) from combat zones.
