AVX bets role in Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) on new aviation technology and ducted fans

May 15, 2019
Design house AVX Aircraft Co. has never built a complete aircraft. The Future Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) might change that. Breaking Defense reports.

WASHINGTON – Dark horse design house AVX Aircraft Co. in Benbrook, Texas, has never built a complete aircraft. Competition for the U.S. Army Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) just might change that. Breaking Defense reports. Continue reading original article

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

15 May -- Compared to its top competitors, aviation giants Sikorsky and Bell, AVX is innovative but small, like a hornet fighting eagles. A new partnership with the much larger L-3, however, more time to refine its aviation technology, and changing Army priorities all give AVX a better chance than the last time it took on its far larger rivals.

Ducted fans are the most visible trademark of AVX designs. Basically, they are rotors spinning inside a cylindrical cover, a propeller in a can. Arguably more efficient than conventional propellers and rotors at low speeds, but less efficient at high speeds, they’re used on the Navy’s LCAC hovercraft and off-the-shelf mini-drones.

AVX, however, likes to put them on high-speed aircraft — from its Joint Multi-Role candidate, to its plan to upgrade the aging OH-58 Kiowa, to its Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft proposal today. They give AVX’s designs a distinctly futuristic look, echoing gunships like James Cameron’s Avatar.

Related: Army's Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) military helicopter to replace OH-58D, half AH-64s

Related: Navy asks Bell to build 25 AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters and avionics for Marine Corps

Related: Lockheed Martin to provide electro-optical targeting systems for U.S. Marine Corps attack helicopters

John Keller, chief editor

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