Demand on the rise for small hovering drones.

• Author: Wagner, Breanne

The market for small, hovering drones will continue to grow, possibly at the expense of larger unmanned aircraft, experts say.

Small "ducted fan" drones--classified as weighing less than 50 pounds--have gained more attention in recent years because of their size and their advantages over fixed-wing unmanned aircraft, says Basil Papadales, principal with Moire Inc., a consulting firm in Issaquah, Wash.

Ducted fan drones, unlike fixed-wing unmanned aircraft, fly like helicopters, but have propellers enclosed inside a duct.

Ducted fan vehicles have the "classic advantage of taking off and hovering," he says. They also are easier to transport than the bulkier fixed-wing drones.

"Everything works in favor of small ducted fan UAVs," Papadales asserts.

The hovering feature has been critical for U.S. forces in Iraq that search for roadside bombs. Army convoys have been using a vehicle called the RQ-16A micro air vehicle to fly ahead of the pack and scan the roads, he says.

"Ducted fan UAVs are the [military's] choice," asserts Papadales. "There is no doubt that the Army will have thousands of them."

Right now, the Army is flying about 40 micro air vehicles, or MAVs, that are manufactured by Honeywell International Inc., says Dan Fouts, the company's manager of customer sales. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency initially awarded Honeywell a contract for 50 MAVs. The Army is flying aircraft that were purchased under that contract, but is currently working to buy more, Fours says.

The drone's popularity has quickly spread to other services as well.

The Navy announced a surprise order in January for 185 of the two-vehicle MAV systems, for a total of 370 vehicles. They will be shipped to explosive ordnance disposal units beginning in June.

Meanwhile, the market for larger ducted fan vehicles is not faring as well, Papadales says. Several companies are trying to sell large hovering drones as the next revolution for urban warfare, but the market is not yet there.

One company, Urban Aeronautics, based in Yavne, Israel, is developing two large ducted fan aircraft as a replacement for helicopters. The company believes helicopters are ill suited for urban operations.

"Helicopters are limited in urban areas because of large rotors and exposed rotor blades," says Janina Frankel-Yoeli, vice president of marketing at Urban Aeronautics.

The company is offering the "X-Hawk" vehicle for picking up and dropping off troops in tight urban areas and the...