Xcell Black Hole UAV video

I did a search and didn't find anything, so i'm gonna ask folks here: Has any one ever seen or heard of this company and its unmanned vehicles ? They look real snazzy, but is it a real company ?

They have a web page... but it just shows the above video (albeit in nice high res)

Any one have any further info ?

Xcell space industries

Spoke to intelgurl;
All she knows is that its a euro company that has nothing going on except a concept they are trying to sell. There is no record of this company ever making any sales contact with Raytheon or Northrop Grumman, not that they would have to - but both Raytheon and Northrop do have a large market share of certain classified avionics required for ISR and strike UAVs.

Also the Euro UAV initiative is nearly dead in the water - nothing happening, no projects anywhere close to a working demo.

[edit on 6/28/2008 by bios]

reply to post by Dan Tanna


Another top notch 'black world'/concept avionic thread Dan!Starred,flagged,and 'DUGG'.It looked like the last prototype used 'Aerospike' technology for it's rocket system(to avoid the missiles).Blackhole..........the tightest aircraft name EVER!
Great thread(did I mention that,lol)

[edit on 6/28/2008 by jkrog08]

Never heard of them. The video was impressive, but the only concept that struck me as designed with function in mind (as opposed to aesthetically pleasing) was the "Condor".
Just my tuppence.

reply to post by _Del_


All tuppences welcome _del_.

I never heard of them either so I thought i'd haul it up and see if any ohter info was about / around.

Thanks bios for asking intelgurl,

reply to post by Dan Tanna


Neat video, but look at about 1:57 into it.

They misspell an important word.

SOPHISTICATED
......STEALHT
........device

LOL.

Also, the 'nanotech' part preceding that does not make sense.

Otherwise, cool, thanks for posting.

reply to post by Badge01


Oh man... they made a typo in an official vid ? well spotted dude.

But try as I might do you think I can find any info on them thats current ? no Sir'ee can I!

They look real snazzy, but is it a real company ?

The ass end of that thing just *screams* "base drag." The space between the two jet exhausts looked to be vertical. Bad design.

Additionally, at this point in time it would seem strange to have a UAV that goes to the bother of being nominally shaped for stealth, but that has conventional round nozzles. Typically there'd be some effort towards stealthing those aprts as well.

reply to post by Orionblamblam



F-35 has round nozzles... and the F-35 is a stealth plane. Although on the real flight article you can clearly see turkey feathers on the nozzle itself. Whos to say this wouldn't have as well if it was developed ?

Any how, its a no show because bios asked Intelgurl and thats the answer we need. This is a real world company, but they don't have a real world project.

One of the UAV's looked to have in-flight modifiable geometry wings, just imagine the manueverability and sheer range of applications working fully modifiable wing geometry could have.
If they could create a working version of any of the craft depicted in the film then i am sure someone would take some serious notice of the company and maybe even take them up on a joint military development plan of some kind.
A manned fighter with the depicted capabilities would be an awesome bird indeed.

[edit on 29/6/2008 by smokey101]

Yeah i noticed those too.

I really thought that condor and the sleeker UCAV at the start though looked like they could go places with there designs. Apart from that little ball turret on the super sonic one...lol, I would of used a more faired in windowed design..

However, an in flght wing change would be awesomely adaptable. Who knows, maybe they might get lucky and field a few of these for tests some day.

Great vid Dan....If it is like a previous poster said and just a sales pitch with no equiptment to back it up then the "blackhole" name might be justified..."give us as much of your money as you can and we will pppppppppppprrrrrrrrorooooooooooooodddddddddduuuuuuuccccccccc* (singularity)" J/p That would be a neat vehicle S&F

Originally posted by djvexd
Great vid Dan....If it is like a previous poster said and just a sales pitch with no equiptment to back it up then the "blackhole" name might be justified..."give us as much of your money as you can and we will pppppppppppprrrrrrrrorooooooooooooodddddddddduuuuuuuccccccccc* (singularity)" J/p That would be a neat vehicle S&F

LOL

Calling it a Black Hole because of an ability to make money vanish..

Good one. As for the designs themselves, I felt they had merit, especially the long range stealthy vehicle.

I had a few problems with this vid.

Firstly their 'Stealht' UAV has a big unstealthy ball turret under it.
Secondly there is no way the last UAV could outrun those missiles even with a rocket motor (what was the reason for the rocket motor anyway?). The thrust to weight ratio wouldn't be close to that of a missile.
And lastly they're using the theme from a Star Wars movie (episode 3 I think).

reply to post by dragon72


Its a concept video... and another thing... read through the very short thread and you'll see its already be confirmed as a 'no show', concept only video not an actual project.

Also, the 'nanotech' part preceding that does not make sense.

Nanotech is just a very general buzzword used to generate feelings of wonder. A friend of mine used to rib me about my working at a "nanotech" company. I worked (past tense) with carbon nanotubes and he did real work at the 90nm scale. Nothing to see here.

They also stole the music from Star Wars. Hopefully, Lucas' lawyers don't get a hold of them.