Time was used to be the US or UK you'd look to for innovation in aviation, but now as often as not it's coming out of China... as with this here. Any guesses? Well like the flat-cat we're building it has four motors to sustain flight and two optimised for forward thrust.
'Sky Tow' is touted as the world's first uncrewed glider-tug. Not raising conventional sailplanes into the air, it is designed as a launch-method for the likes of paragliders and hang-gliders. It is thus operated remotely by a separate pilot, allowing take-offs from the smallest possible space principally because unlike a conventional glider-tug it is up in the air already.
In fact watching the video it's barely visible and said take-offs look AI-generated; except they're not. Accordingly despite the $45,000 price-tag the Shenzen company has had enquiries from around the world... except in most places it is going to take some time for the regulations to catch up in order to legalise the operation.
$45,000 tho' ~ as with all things drone ~ is way cheaper than the alternatives when it comes to capital and operating costs. Conventionally gliders are launched by either a powered winch on the ground, or an aeroplane with a modified propeller designed for pulling power at low speed... plus its pilot. Even worse, paragliders have to walk up a hillside or face a long lift up winding roads to a cliff-top: unless they are fortunate to live near Alpine ski-resorts where the lifts can operate throughout the year for this reason if none other so that everyone's a winner.
