Volz Servos and Kraus Hamdani deepen collaboration
As early as 2023, Kraus Hamdani Aerospace’s (KHA) K1000ULE completed a world-record-setting 75-hour 53-minute autonomous flight. To date, the K1000ULE has logged more than 7,000 flight hours and over 200,000 miles in the air for the U.S. DoW. The ultra-long-endurance, long-range UAS reliably supports Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance, Electronic Intelligence, Signal Relay and other classified capabilities in highly contested and GPS-denied environments. Achieving mission-critical reliability starts with the airframe’s components, especially its actuators: the aircraft is engineered to withstand the impacts and shock loads that come with frequent handling during fast box-to-flight assembly and long-endurance flights in worldwide combat operations.
Engineered to Withstand Shock, Vibration, and Everyday Handling
What’s crucial for this performance is reliable, precise operation of all control surfaces, combined with protection against harmful impact and vibrations. This is where Volz’s DA 15-N.ISS actuators play to their strengths. „Until now, Kraus Hamdani Aerospace has been using our standard servo. However, we recently discussed supplying them with a slightly modified version designed to simplify the integration of the servos into their current production process,“ says Volz COO Felix Thun, who recently visited both the manufacturing facility in the Bay Area and their airborne operations and test site in Reno, Nevada. „These Volz servos in the K1000ULE are based on the tried-and-tested full brushless DA 15-N actuator and are equipped with the Internal Servo Saver (ISS), a feature unique for its size class.“ The ISS is a mechanical gear-protection system that shields the gear set against radial shock loads exceeding a predefined limit. With four of these highly reliable servos on board, ailerons, elevators, and rudders react immediately and precisely to every command.
Beyond mechanical resilience, the actuators also help protect signal integrity: the conductive aluminum housing and shielded connection cable reduce susceptibility to EMI/RFI noise to an absolute minimum. This is a critical advantage for a platform built around Electronic Intelligence, sensitive sensor and communications payloads.
A Partnership Built Over Five Years — and Thousands of Flight Hours
„These actuators were the logical choice for the K1000ULE supporting long-endurance operations where reliability is crucial. They combine extremely low weight with robustness and power while protecting the delicate gearbox from damage caused by high shock loads,“ says Felix Thun, who first learned about the Kraus Hamdani Aerospace project five years ago during a trade show visit in London. „From the very beginning and throughout the thousands of flight hours since then, we can proudly say that there hasn’t been a single failure with our servos.“ Now, the Volz team’s on-site visit laid the foundation for further collaboration, Thun adds: „We learned a great deal about the application and the requirements. The feedback from those who work with our products every day enables us to truly deliver a solution that meets their needs and simplifies the lives of KHA’s employees.“
„Every component inside the K1000ULE contributes to mission success. When our K1000ULE is supporting critical operations for the U.S. Department of War, reliability is not optional, it is foundational. From the airframe and avionics to the actuators, payloads, power systems, and communications architecture, each part must perform with precision over long durations and in demanding operational environments. Volz has been a trusted part of that reliability story helping ensure the K1000ULE can continue delivering the persistence, control, and confidence our warfighters depend on.“, Stefan Kraus, CTO and founder, Kraus Hamdani Aerospace.
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