Our gliders are ideal for use in contested logistics and anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) environments that are too dangerous for reusable manned or unmanned aircraft. A glider's low unit cost could enable swarm resupply where in case one glider is disabled, only that glider is lost and not the mission.  

Gliders can provide humanitarian resupply of besieged cities or military units and deliver rescue supplies to downed aircrew.      

Our gliders are low-cost, attritable, long-range precision delivery systems that could provide a squad with a single day sustainment, could significantly reduce resupply costs, not compromise a unit’s position through noise, and not burden a unit by requiring it to recover and retain the glider. 

Our gliders increase standoff range for cargo aircraft to improve the safety for their aircrew as well as reduce the fuel and time consumed in transporting supplies to widely dispersed locations. Gliders also increase a ship's standoff distance from shore-based threats such as cruise missiles and long range precision fire.   

• Gliders could provide squads located at widely separated points of need with single day sustainment

• Gliders could resupply units located in remote inaccessible areas

• Gliders should be less likely to telegraph a ground unit’s location as compared to helicopter resupply, cargo aircraft parachute airdrop, or an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle that must land with motors on

• The glider’s small size, low radar cross section (RCS), low infrared (IR), and low acoustic signature all make the gliders difficult to observe

• Gliders do not further burden a squad by requiring them to bring back glider components

• Glider resupply would not be stopped by Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) as ground resupply might

• Gliders resupply could be less likely to be stopped by Air Defense Systems (ADS) as compared to delivery of cargo by helicopter, by parachute airdrop, or by eVTOL vehicle

• Even if a glider is shot down by an ADS, the glider could cost less than the ADS assets required to shoot the glider down

• Gliders would be able to operate in all weather conditions including high winds, but would not be able to operate in severe icing conditions

• Gliders can land anywhere a parachute could, including locations that rotorcraft can not land such as urban canyons, small clearings, dense forest or jungles, and very rough, hilly or mountainous terrain

• Glider use GFE T-11 parachutes for landing. Over 10,000 GFE T-11 parachutes are available yearly at no cost to DoD users for cargo use after they reach the end of their 12-year service life

• Glider delivery accuracy is expected to be similar to any very low-altitude parachute airdrop, i.e., an accuracy of about 50 feet circular error probable (CEP)

• Gliders do not need an airfield-like landing zone

• Gliders improve cargo aircraft survivability by providing standoff from ADS

• Unpowered gliders can glide up to 70 nautical miles (80 statue miles or 130 kilometers) assuming deployment from 35,000 feet (10700 meters)

• Powered gliders can fly significantly farther than this

• Gliders could create dilemmas for an adversary and cause favorable cost trade-offs

• Does an adversary shoot down a low-cost glider with a high-cost missile?  

• Gliders are inexpensive enough that they could be used as decoys against ADS

• Gliders reduce flight hours needed to fly a logistic mission, thus reducing aircraft maintenance and increasing the availability of aircraft & flight crew for other missions

• Gliders could improve the throughput (tons-miles of cargo per hour) for a carrier aircraft

• Gliders are particularly well suited for missions that involve resupply of multiple widely separated points of need

• Gliders could eliminate rotorcraft landing in a landing zone (LZ) – potentially dangerous even in peacetime

• Gliders save carrier aircraft limited airframe life for future use

• Gliders can provide ship-to-shore cargo delivery    

• Gliders increase a ship's standoff distance from shore-based threats such as cruise missiles and long-range precision fire

• Gliders significantly improve a carrier aircraft’s radius of action

• An amphibious ship’s Air Combat Element (ACE) could deploy up to 50 gliders an hour because the MV-22, CH-53, and MH-60 aircraft could carry multiple gliders simultaneously

• Gliders could transfer humanitarian aid across political borders – could have been a game changer in Syria in 2015

• Gliders could be used as inexpensive Group 3 (<1,320 lb) or Group 4 (> 1,320 lb) targets for testing of various types of Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) and anti-drone systems

• Gliders could provide emergency firefighting logistic support

• Gliders could carry low cost sensors for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions

• Gliders could deliver high value commercial or military items and packages to remote inaccessible locations where roads and airports do not exist such as found in northern Canada, Alaska, or Antarctica

• Gliders are inexpensive enough that many could be launched at the same time to form a long-range drone swarm

• Gliders could be used for psychological operations such as dropping leaflets or carrying sound equipment that plays messages or sound effects 

• Gliders could be manufactured by multiple sub-contractors since they were designed to be simple to build. Gliders have only 600 parts, which compares to World War II gliders with 70,000 parts and a modern automobile with over 30,000 parts. Less than 80 parts are custom components that are easily made from common materials such as plywood, plastic, aluminum extrusions, and sheet metal. The rest of the parts are available as commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS). Over 400 of the COTS parts are readily available fasteners that can be bought at any hardware store. All parts are self-jigging with only a flat table needed to assemble a glider

• Glider’s innovative design and unique choice in materials and manufacturing methods can make them lower in cost as compared to other precision aerial delivery systems

• Gliders could be less expensive for many missions as compared to other means of aerial delivery when considering the cost of both the carrier aircraft plus the glider

• Glider are always less expensive when the probability of carrier aircraft loss to ADS is considered

• Gliders could greatly outdistance any ground based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed for cargo logistics since the actual cargo delivery distance is the sum of the carrier aircraft’s range plus the glider’s range

• If a glider is lost for any reason, then only that glider mission is lost. If a reusable UAV is lost for any reason, then all future missions for that UAV are lost

• Gliders could bypass shore-based Reception, Staging, Onward Movement, and Integration (RSOI) logistics depots that have been traditionally used to deliver supplies to multiple points of need

• Gliders could improve the throughput (tons-miles of cargo per hour) for a carrier aircraft. For example, since the MV-22 could carry up to four gliders at a time there are concept of operations (CONOPS) in which the gliders enable one MV-22 to do the job of four MV-22’s

• Gliders could save carrier aircraft fuel – this is fuel that does not need to be transported into the operating theater

• Gliders have folding wings and are stackable with up to 4 gliders stacked on top of each other to allow for compact storage onboard aircraft, ships, logistic depots, and inside standard 20 or 40 foot long storage containers

• Gliders can be assembled quickly using only small hand tools

• Gliders are easily programmed using a laptop computer and wireless modem

• A new glider Guidance, Navigation, & Control (GN&C) system is under development that will allow for very long range Beyond-Line-of-Sight (BLOS) Command & Control (C2)