IAI Panther
Country: 
IsraelManufacturer: Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)
IAI's first tiltrotor UAV: vertical take-off and landing with a fixed-wing airframe, eliminating both catapult and runway.
IAI's first tiltrotor UAV: vertical take-off and landing with a fixed-wing airframe, eliminating both catapult and runway.
Community
Data trust
- Reliability
- Unverified
- Sources
- Sources pending review
Identity
- Designation
- IAI Panther
- Manufacturer
- Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)
- Country
- Israel
- Year
- 2010
- Category
- ISR (Reconnaissance)
- Class
- Tactical (< 600 kg)
- Status
- In service
Performance
- Range
- 60 km
- Endurance
- 6 h
- Top speed
- 139 km/h
- Service ceiling
- 3,000 m
- Propulsion
- Tiltrotor — tre eliche elettriche basculanti
Physical characteristics
- MTOW
- 65 kg
- Payload
- 8.5 kg
Onboard systems
- Sensors
- Gimbal EO/IR Mini-POP, opzionale laser designator
- Datalink / control
- Datalink digitale LOS
- Launch
- Verticale (VTOL)
- Recovery
- Verticale (VTOL)
Tags
Main operators
History
Unveiled in 2010, the Panther combines three tilting electric rotors with a fixed wing: it takes off vertically like a helicopter, then transitions to fixed-wing horizontal flight for endurance and efficiency.
A 12 kg 'Mini Panther' variant uses the same architecture for platoon-level missions.
IAI's Panther was one of the first operational tiltrotor UAVs in the world: the transition from helicopter-mode vertical flight to fixed-wing horizontal flight is handled fully autonomously by the flight control computer, with no operator input.
The tiltrotor architecture allows operations from confined spaces such as ship decks, forest clearings or rooftops, removing the need for catapult or runway — a capability prized by the Israeli Navy for missions from Sa'ar 5 corvettes.
In 2018 IAI offered a 12 kg 'Mini Panther' variant for the US Army's Future Tactical UAS program, competing with AeroVironment, Textron and Northrop Grumman.