Black Swift Technologies

Black Swift Technologies builds unmanned aircraft systems, called UAS or drones, for science and data work. The company is based in Boulder, Colorado. It was founded in 2011. Its aircraft carry scientific instruments into hard places such as high altitude, the Arctic, deserts and strong turbulence.

The company says its research aircraft are used around the world for atmospheric studies in extreme conditions. Missions include monitoring wildland fires, volcanoes, tornadoes and hurricanes. Its products are built for these tasks from the start.

The product line includes the S2 UAS. It is a durable research aircraft that follows the terrain and flies through strong winds and harmful particles. It is meant for field campaigns that move from place to place. The S2 has a modular payload system that crews can swap in the field. Other products are the S0 VTOL UAS, the S0 Air Deployed UAS and the E2 UAS. VTOL means the aircraft takes off and lands vertically.

All of its aircraft use the SwiftCore Flight Management System. This is an avionics system that lets users control, command and talk to their UAS for autonomous flight. It has four parts. These are the SwiftPilot autopilot, the SwiftTab tablet interface, the SwiftStation ground station and sensor links for each job. The system can change the flight path on its own, based on sensor readings. This lowers the work for the operator and improves the data.

The company also lists on-board augmented intelligence and data-centric flight control as key points. It says its fault detection uses machine learning to predict system failures before they happen.

Black Swift says SwiftCore has been approved and used for major NASA science missions and for NOAA deployments. Other users include engineering and survey teams, construction and mining managers, and scientific and academic groups. Their work covers environmental monitoring.

The company won a NASA contract to design an aerial vehicle for the upper atmosphere of Venus. The design uses dynamic soaring, which draws energy from wind shear. The website has a newsroom, product pages, application pages and a way to request a quote.