Kāhu:

The Aircraft

Designed and built exclusively by CMS Race Performance, the Kahu offers the leading edge in construction, and practical design…

The CAD designed, 99% composite construction with precision laser cut structural support items provides a structurally sound, durable, but lightweight platform for many demanding tasks.

The Kahu is designed to excel in the following areas

Autonomous flight system usage
Aerial Search and Location detection
Aerial Surveillance
Bush Fire Surveillance and Assessment
Law Enforcement
Military Target Drone
Data Collection
Airborne Particle Collection
Aerial Still or Video Photography
Cinematography

Features

Spacious Composite Fuselage for payload positioning with exceptional access
Composite "Hollow" wings allow for larger fuel tanks, and equipment placement
Customer allocated wing compartments
Nitro, Petrol or Electric propulsion
Can be operated with Fixed tricycle undercarriage, Retractable Tricycle Undercarriage, no undercarriage (Belly Landing), "Dolly", Vehicle or catapult launch
Fully flying tailplane allowing precise control and less drag for autonomous flight systems
Replaceable wingtips; Standard or Winglet
Multiple wing designs and spans.
Pusher engine configuration allowing for exceptional forward view camera mounting
Paintwork/colour scheme as per customer requirement

Specifications

Fuselage Length 2300mm
Wingspan 2840mm*
Height 530mm**

* Does not include wing tips; ** No undercarriage fitted

Autonomous Flight Systems

The Kahu is available with*, or without autonomous flight systems

Key Features:

Highly integrated – A complete solution including sensors, GPS, enclosure, and communications link
Small size and convenient package
Reduced operational cost - Supports operating multiple aircraft (up to 10) from a single Operator Interface and Ground Station
Advanced System Functionality – With the latest software version, these autopilots offer advanced system functionality, including:
- Small size: 4.8” x 2.4” x 1.5”, 233g
- Completely autonomous operation includes catapult launch and autoland
- Dead reckoning / graceful degradation in lost GPS environment
- Auto Assist manual flight modes
- Flexible drag and drop flight plan generation and updates
- Control of lights, parachute deployment, autonomous drop function, and brakes
- Flexible simulator tools
- Single CPU software simulation in addition to complete system HWIL simulation
Low Cost – Purchase includes FREE software updates and FREE technical support
End-user programmability – Communications SDK provided to support custom interfaces
Royalty free source code licensing - Options available for all system software components
Processing power to accommodate future growth – Supports future implementation of advanced feature sets. Design is based on the Motorola MPC555 family of automotive micro controllers, which include integrated peripherals, memory and hardware floating point.
No RC Receiver Needed - Manual piloting over the robust integrated UHF link
Real-Time Data Logging – Flight telemetry data is logged in both binary and ASCII formats

* Autonomous Flight Systems are export controlled by the office of Defence Trade Controls that is part of the Department of State. They follow rules based on the International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR), for sale and use. These products are classified as Category VIII(h)(i) munitions equipment.

Please contact us for further information.

Kāhu:

The Construction

Built using both vacuum and conventional laminating techniques, the Kahu boasts the highest grade materials specifically for it's design tasks. The composite core sandwich of the Kahu is at the leading edge of currently available products.

Here’s why we chose this advanced and Patented, core material…

The special core itself is the combination of light hollow microspheres with high-modulus fibers. Thermoplastic microspheres are embedded within the high-modulus fibers in form of a watery suspension at the unexpanded preliminary stage so that the individual particles are evenly distributed right into the interior area of the elementary fiber strands. These non-bloated filler particles are subsequently expanded through a thermal process. This causes the elementary fibers to expand, adding volume to the fiber strands in a definable form up to 100 times their basic volume. Through the unique combination of extremely light, tough-plastic microspheres and the superior strength characteristics of high-modulus fibers, the core laminates are imparted material characteristics, which are not generally achieved by the classic composite materials. The flat core products manufactured in this way are between 1-12mm thick. These material thicknesses can be adjusted as required through the construction of basic materials, quantity and quality of the thermoplastic microspheres and the production parameters. At the same time the strength characteristics can be adjusted to the desired application through the quality of the high-modulus fibers and high or low fiber contents. The weight characteristics and the resin absorption can also be modified as required through higher or lower concentrations of microspheres. These core products can also be adapted to the various further processing technologies through different material structures and quality of the microspheres.

With most of the known core materials (such as plywood, BALSA, foam materials, honeycomb, etc.) the achievable weight savings are at the expense of serious quality restrictions and manufacturing problems of the sandwich laminates manufactured from these materials. These are

Plywood:

High weight
Not drapeable
Bad bond strength = poor sheer strength
No laminate homogeneity
Hygroscopic = rotable = bad long term performance
High processing cost
Only available as panels with limited lengths and widths
Poor impact strength
Only suitable for limited processing methods
Difficult to repair

BALSA:

Poor drapeability: Can be shaped to a minor extent only through chessboard type “block structure”
Low bond strength = poor shear strength
No laminate homogeneity
Hygroscopic = rotable = bad long term performance
Complex and consequently expensive processing
Only available as panels with limited lengths and widths
Poor impact strength
Low compression strength
Only suitable for limited processing methods
Difficult to repair

Foam materials

Poor drapeability: Can be shaped to a minor extent only through chessboard type “block structure”
Low bond strength = poor shear strength
No laminate homogeneity
High processing costs
Only available as panels with limited lengths and widths
Very low compression stability
Low temperature resistance
Only suitable for limited processing methods
Difficult to repair

Honeycomb

Limited drapeability
Limited bond strength
No laminate homogeneity
Open honeycomb structures = susceptible to injury = water absorption
Very expensive to process
Only suitable for limited processing methods
Difficult to repair

The Patented CORE product used in the manufacture of the KAHU has…

Good drapeability = can be laminated even with extreme three-dimensional shaping
High bond strength = excellent sheer strength
Unique laminate homogeneity through wet in wet manufacture of the total laminate
Can be used in almost all popular working processes (hand lay-up, spray up, wet winding, pultrusion, wet pressing, vacuum process, RTM, injection process)
Print blocking = excellent surfaces
The best surface qualities of all currently known manufacturing processes for composite materials are possible with this product.

Kāhu:

The Name

Ka amio te kāhu, a, ka rere whakararo mai ki runga i tana pārurenga.

“The hawk circled then flew down on to its prey.”

Maori:(noun) harrier hawk, Australasian harrier, Circus approximans - a large brown hawk with long-fingered wings…

Can be seen drifting over the countryside looking for something...

The hawks soar over the country in wide circles with a slow steady flight, remaining on the wing for hours without apparent fatigue…

They fly slowly into the wind, gliding, as they quarter the open country…