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The military unmanned delivery aircraft are all tail sitters (500 pound payloads). I hope Google's drafting behind all the existing R&D there. The military stuff out there is crazy - hummingbird-size ornithopters, 2 ounce helicopters that can fly for 30 minutes with an encrypted HD video uplink, etc.,


Can you name a single tail sitter in active use by the military?

The k-max helicopter was used for a lot of unmanned cargo supply missions.


Why are tail sitters better than a tilt rotor?


Less moving parts. Tilt rotors exist mostly because humans find it difficult to cope with a tailsitter's changes in attitude.


The only reason for tilt-rotors is when you need to keep the main body of the aircraft level.

The only problem with tail-sitters is the pilot (and possibly the payload).


> The only reason for tilt-rotors is when you need to keep the main body of the aircraft level.

Actually, a tilt-rotor can be manipulated to make the aircraft go where you want it to. The same idea explains how helicopters make their way across the landscape.




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