Aerovel

Drone Intelligence Assessment

Aerovel is a small company with a large owner. According to Wikipedia, Tad McGeer founded Aerovel in 2006, having co-founded Insitu in 1992 (this site's Insitu profile gives 1994 for Insitu's founding; the two accounts are noted, not reconciled here). Its aircraft is the Flexrotor, a 25 kilogram vertical take-off and landing tactical UAS. Airbus Helicopters signed an agreement to buy the company in January 2024 and announced completion that May; neither Airbus release states a purchase price. Airbus has since marketed the aircraft as the U030 Flexrotor while keeping Aerovel a US-owned company under a Special Security Agreement, with design and manufacture continuing in Bingen, Washington.

The commercial record since the acquisition is the useful part of this profile. In December 2025 Airbus Helicopters won a 30 million euro framework contract from the European Maritime Safety Agency for maritime surveillance services flown with the Flexrotor, and operations began in the Baltic in July 2026. Orders Airbus has announced include six systems and 17 aircraft for Australia's Drone Forge, up to 18 systems for Garuda Technologies, and a first Canadian order with Voyageur Aviation. Airbus said in September 2026 that the Bingen workforce had grown from about 30 at acquisition to over 100.

On this profile's reading, the two published figures that define the Flexrotor are its endurance and its landing zone. Airbus's technical page gives 12 to 15 hours typical endurance, below the 24 hours this site records for Insitu's catapult-launched ScanEagle, and a 3.7 by 3.7 metre landing zone with vertical take-off and landing; Airbus describes the aircraft as an expeditionary UAS for land and sea operations. The EMSA contract is the service-contract reference recorded on this profile. None of the eleven pages read for this profile states a US programme-of-record position or cumulative fleet hours, so this profile records neither.