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Stacy Liberatore — Daily Mail Jan 18, 2017

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The US Army has demonstrated the capabilities of a ‘hoverbike’ that could one day deliver supplies to soldiers in war zones.

Hailed the ‘Amazon on the battlefield’, the joint tactical aerial resupply vehicle (JTARV) has been in the development stages since 2014 and proved itself to be a working prototype earlier this month.

Researchers are also working on technology that will help JTARV fly low to the ground at speeds of 60 miles per hour while delivering supplies within 30 minutes.

JTARV is being developed by the US Army Research Lab for the Department of Defense and completed the successful test flight earlier this month.

While the current prototype is electric, researchers are looking at a hybrid propulsion system that may dramatically increase its range.

They are also exploring increasing the payload capacity to 800 pounds and extending the range to 125 miles.

‘We’re also looking to integrate advanced intelligent navigation and mission planning,’ said Tim Vong, associate chief of ARL’s Protection Division.

‘We’re looking to end up with a modular, stable platform that can be used for even more dynamic and challenging missions.’

The US Army Research Lab began working on the JTARV concept in the summer of 2014 and shortly after entered into contracts with manufactures and system integrators to quickly develop a working prototype.

And now that JTARV has shown promising results, it has become a joint effort with the US Marine Corps as well.

‘The project is successful because we went from concept development to engineering evaluation in collaboration with all various government agencies and industry,’ said Ernesto Garcia Lopez, ARDEC. ‘

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