Welcome to the Black Kite development page. The Black Kite is a ducted fan research vehicle being developed as part of an undergraduate thesis project in the Aeronautical Engineering department at the University of Sydney.

Today there is emerging an increasing number of applications for unmanned flight both in the civilian and military sectors. A number of these missions require, or significantly benefit from, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability. The Black Kite is being developed as a VTOL capable vehicle with the ability to perch at a specified location allowing extended operation and monitoring. Utilising a high quality electric brushless setup and the latest in high performance ducted fans, the Black Kite will be capable of operation in confined spaces and have greatly increased time on station.

Some basic vehicle specifications are listed below. More will be included as work continues.

Many thanks must go to Daniel Schübeler of Schübeler jet-modell-systeme for supporting this project in such a significant way. Our thanks are also extended to David Radford of Air Craft in Japan for his assistance and to the Engineering Department of Sydney University for their support in this project.  Please visit the websites of our sponsors to see what they are up to.