60 launches per night: when Cobra UAVs will allow the mirrors to be answered

In the coming days, the Kryvyi Rih team will hand over powerful and autonomous drones to the Ukrainian military, and from January he plans to produce up to one hundred aircraft-champage aircraft per month. The day before, many Ukrainian media wrote about the launch of serial production of domestic COBRA drones with a range of 300 km, which is not true.

The focus addressed the developer of these machines Valery Brizgalov and learned what the situation is in fact and when the COBRA UAVs began to produce massively for the army. Please tell us how COBRA development is moving? According to our plan, we are really moving to mass production, which provides stable processes of manufacturing the same parts. To do this, you need to use special equipment, because ordinary methods such as milling, sharpening, very unproductive to do many identical things.

To date, we have protested all these processes, installed their timing, completely completed the development of production in digital form, and now we are moving to the embodiment in iron. Very major restrictions are imposed by production safety, dispersion over a large area, in places where there is no connection. In some place, engines are made, in some - control systems, somewhere they are collected in blocks, somewhere - installed on planes.

When from one shop to the other 100 or even more kilometers, it is a little inhibitory process, but we still move. Did I understand correctly from your words that Cobra UAV serial production has not yet started? If you count serial production, as processes, it seemed to have begun, but not in quantity, but as quality. We have already worked out mass processes. For the most quantitative production, when we can do a lot, many planes, we are now giving people and teaching them now.

According to your forecasts, when and at what scale will mass production begin? Now we know for sure that the plane can be produced in three hours about ten people. The projected variants, according to which three people can collect the aircraft in three hours, have not come true, but ten can collect it from scratch: from cutting elements, the manufacture of the engine to a fully assembled drone requires ten people and three hours.

If everything is fine, in January-February we will be able to produce one hundred aircraft a month. You can then scale the number of industries themselves, transfer accessories to a license or just those who will collect them somewhere elsewhere. That is, one hidden enterprise of ten gatherors can collect one hundred aircraft a month, ie three to three and a half daily.

To do this, we need to gather some more people because we hid production, and it is in places where it is usually very difficult to find engineers. But still there are people with golden hands, who need to be taught a little, establish communication between distributed teams, and then everything will go. The project as a whole is quite unique because we worked from the beginning to reduce the cheaper of the product itself and to localize.

The most difficult thing that can be in development is to make prototype from prototypes. If the engine prototype is also set on the prototype of the aircraft, then you get problems that can arise - in a square. Usually I do not advise anyone to do this, it is better to take ready and put it.

I write a lot of people: why show production? Now I am much less showing processes, Novinars are trying to snatch something from my social networks, and then, without agreeing, they say, they say, everything is super. In fact, it is very difficult with people, logistics, distribution through territory, safety. But the remaining publicity is necessary for other people to take the example and make drones in themselves, because Ukraine needs tens of thousands of different drones.

How many prototypes of aircraft have been made? Only those that we have shot down are about 20, and another 20 who were transferred to the experimental operation to contractors and subcontractors who joined the team for the development of mass processes. They study planes and what can localize, simplify, accelerate. Today we produce approximately a plane a day by our test laboratory.

I think practically up to 50 aircraft was used for waste, flight tests, checks of tactical and technical characteristics. Further, in two to three weeks, let us start passing the aircraft with the required units for working out the necessary units in the areas where they need. Because now we agree with the military and carry out flight tests where we are comfortable.

We usually need to fly a little in the places where they need, because it is important for us to get confirmed results, flight parameters, remove telemetry, and there is often no connection at the line of contact. Therefore, today we work more in places where there is a communication or there is an opportunity not to stuff the planes at least on our part. Because on the forefront of the front, both ours and Russians are stuck.

Such double suppression leaves no chance of getting feedback from the aircraft, as it flies, where, at what speed and what parameters. In a week, we will start passing planes that are not equipped with communication. They fly autonomously and do not "listen", and therefore there is no need to blacken. But these are drones that interfere with the enemy.

There are several options: target planes, bait planes, airplanes-discovery of air defense, which was visible where they were shooting, and continue to affect the goals by other means. We will gradually develop other areas for which they can be suitable. Apparently, these are all options except intelligence, because the scout from "Cobra" is bad - it flies very quickly and loud.

In partnership with other teams that work, for example, with ballistic calculators, it, as a designer, with the addition of different blocks, can become another tool. In the last post, you reported that the drones increased. What has changed exactly in the Kobra design? We have developed a new version of the engine, taking into account all previous tests. In fact, they doubled power, leaving almost the same size.

The weight increased by half a kilogram, literally by 30% increased volume, but the thrust got much more. If the first version of the engine was about 15-17 kilograms, now about 24-28 kilograms. Usually, in aircraft, the engine thrust to its runway is 1: 3. That is, the engine with a thrust of 25 kilograms provides 75 kilograms of runway. It takes a lot of speed to lift this weight.

If we, like a plane, take off from the runway, accelerating up to 150 km/h, then such a very experienced pilot is required, because holding the plane on the lane is a very difficult task, especially if there is a side wind or the quality of the coating is bad. It is now difficult to find a pilot who can do it, their units, and this limits the scope. So now we work on an automatic take -out system from catapult.

Already developed a prototype of catapults, checked the first sample, found disadvantages, measured the power, the speed of the rise. They saw that it took a much more powerful catapult, because now the prototype removes a maximum of 40 kilograms. The catapult is also a rather complex engineering design - it is pneumatic, high pressure, reliability of connections, and most importantly, safety, because it has one hundred percent to run the aircraft and not destroy it.

Since the drone can be equipped with explosives or other means of damage, the catapult should be safe for staff. That is, you need to provide a remote start of the closed shelter. The operator must install, adjust the aircraft, go to a safe place and run it remotely. How will the engine power improve the characteristics of "cobra"? Will the flight range and weight increase? It all allows to increase: speed, range, and weight, because the aircraft is very fast.

The more weight on the area of ​​the wing, the faster it is necessary to fly so that it can be carried. In "Cobra", at the expense of a very strong metal structure, we reach the load almost like ordinary aircraft, and speed can reach 400-500 km/h. If the engine allows you to get this speed, then it is worth doing. Even if this speed is not needed, it will be much easier to operate at medium speeds, and it will be more resource.

We do not count on long -term cobra operation, but these engines can be used in other aircraft that need to take off and return more than once. What do you need to make drones now? If you take ready components, there is nothing complicated about it - just a large LEGO designer. If a team of boys with a normal engineer and golden hands, you can collect drones in almost every garage. Many people turn to me for tips for what to start. And I do not advise you to do a lot of things at the same time.

The same FPVs can be done simply by buying ready-made components, composing them and passing them to the military, the boys will set themselves. There are a large number of experienced pilots that will still set up everything. Your task is to collect, check and pass. We, having experience in the development and team of engineers, went the other way, realizing that at any time the accessories would end or prohibit delivery from China.

We are working on localization, we have our engines, our planes, our electronics, communications and several third -party elements, which are also produced in Ukraine. The only elements that Ukraine and its partners do not produce are servos, but there are already an agreement with several organizations that will try to localize them. This is a complex accurate mechanism, but it can be done by two or three enterprises. Many say: take everything ready and do faster.

We looked at the catapults of European production - it is $ 72,000 per unit, and for complex launches they need at least two, three, five. In order for us to match Russia at the same level: 50-60 launches per night, you will not do one catapult. We will not buy them for such money, because we have experience, equipment, materials to do on our own. Of course, it also needs funds, but smaller.

We have already contacted contractors that produce components of pneumatic systems, and we know that we can safely invest 120 thousand hryvnias per unit. We are no longer raising money for production, because everything is already mastered and prepared, but it is necessary to create a powerful catapult on a wheel move. We still need people, but we cannot write the ad: "We need people to collect drones" because it is dangerous.

Even for a physical meeting with candidates, we usually ask to show our Facebook pages to see the story of a person. Therefore, all communication goes through social networks, and then through private messages we go out. What specialists are currently needed by the project? Currently, locksmith cleaners, engineers, mechanical, pneumatic, hydraulic systems, projection experts, 3D modeling, 3D-fressing, material science.