Bill Fredricks

“HAMR is a significant leapfrog in performance beyond what is in the drone industry today. And Grease Lightning is a significant leapfrog and performance beyond our HAMR product line.  Grease Lightning can take off and land vertically, like a multirotor, maneuver like a multirotor and fly missions of 14 to 20 hours.”

Bill Fredricks

This Week’s Key Question

“How can hybrid powered drones benefit enterprise operations?“

This Week’s Guests

Bill Fredericks is CEO of Advanced Aircraft company. Advanced Aircraft Company, or AAC for short, designs long endurance hybrid electric UAS, targeting commercial and military markets.  Advanced Aircraft Company’s design philosophy is simple: fast, innovative, and safe. Their products feature streamlined aerodynamic designs, hybrid electric propulsion that allows for longer flight times, and rigorous safety procedures that can be employed if the combustion engine fails.  ACC’s first product is the HAMR UAS – a long-endurance multi-rotor utilizing hybrid electric propulsion and pantentedaerodynamic design features.  The HAMR can fly for over 2 hours while carrying a payload of 4 lbs.  The company’s future product is the Greased Lightning UAS. Advanced Aircraft Company has licensed production rights from NASA for the Greased Lightning technology and will improve on the technology to produce a UAS that will fly for 19 hours with a 5 pound payload. This unique aircraft can takeoffand land without any launch and recovery equipment.

Bill is an accomplished aircraft designer who has designed dozens of aircraft, 12 of which have achieved first flight. Before founding Advance Aircraft Company, Bill was a valued Aeronautical Engineer at the NASA Langley Research Center in the Aeronautics Systems Analysis Branch. He is the lead inventor on the Greased Lightning patent and led the project from its conceptual design through its successful flight testing.

What We Learn

Bill Fredricks talks about Advance Aircraft Company, the benefits of hybrid propulsion systems and how the HAMR and Greased Lightning systems can benefit enterprise organizations.  

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