Aeronautics Orbiter 1
Electric flying-wing mini-UAV for platoon/company reconnaissance: silent, portable, adopted by armed forces and police agencies in more than 20 countries.
Aeronautics Orbiter 1
Electric flying-wing mini-UAV for platoon/company reconnaissance: silent, portable, adopted by armed forces and police agencies in more than 20 countries.
Community
Data trust
- Reliability
- Unverified
- Sources
- Sources pending review
Identity
- Designation
- Aeronautics Orbiter 1
- Alias
- Orbiter 1K Mini-UAV
- Manufacturer
- Aeronautics Defense Systems
- Country
- Israel
- Year
- 2007
- Category
- ISR (Reconnaissance)
- Class
- Mini (< 2 kg)
- Status
- In service
Performance
- Range
- 15 km
- Endurance
- 3 h
- Top speed
- 130 km/h
- Service ceiling
- 5,500 m
- Propulsion
- Elettrica brushless, elica spintore
Physical characteristics
- MTOW
- 7 kg
- Payload
- 1.5 kg
Onboard systems
- Sensors
- EO/IR gimbal stabilizzato giorno/notte
- Datalink / control
- Datalink digitale criptato LOS
- Launch
- Catapulta a elastico
- Recovery
- Paracadute + airbag
Tags
Main operators
History
Introduced in 2007, the Orbiter 1 was one of the first commercial mini-UAS to combine a composite flying wing, catapult launch and parachute-airbag recovery.
Aeronautics Defence Systems' Orbiter 1 is one of the most widespread mini-UAVs in the world: bungee-launched and recovered with parachute and airbag, it is used by over 25 countries for tactical reconnaissance missions.
The drone was exported to Azerbaijan and used during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war in both ISR and armed Orbiter 1K versions, contributing to the destruction of Armenian artillery positions and armoured vehicles.
The Orbiter family evolved into the Orbiter 2 (light UAS) and Orbiter 3 (light tactical MALE) versions, with the latter exported in volume to Poland, partially replacing obsolete Soviet-era surveillance systems.