Heven Drones, the Miami-based company specialised on hydrogen powered drones, which R&D centre is however located in Israel, unveiled at IDEX 2025 its Raider, a multirole unmanned air vehicle (UAV) capable to fly over 12 hours carrying a 23 kg payload
Extended endurance, versatility and modularity are the three key words at Heven Drones, coupled to the hydrogen powered propulsion system that is the company trademark. At IDEX 2025 the Miami-based company, which research and development centre is however based in Afula, northern Israel, exhibited its H-100 octocopter drone capable to lift up to 30 kg payload, armed with an assault rifle, however the star at the Heven Drones stand was the Raider, the 7 metres wingspan fixed wing aircraft with vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capacity, which was unveiled in Abu Dhabi. The airframe can be disassembled for transport, and it can be made ready for flight in less than 15 minutes, according to the company. Heven Drones also proposes a compact version with a 5.5 metres wingspan, should the customer need to operate it from smaller surfaces, for example a ship flight deck; this should mean a certain modularity of the system, which details will probably be released at a later date.
The Raider has a peculiar architecture as it features two aerodynamically shaped nacelles fitted under the straight wing, a central structure protruding to the rear to sustain the conventional tailplane and the main electric motor, which activates a to-blade pushing propeller. The two nacelles, which in fact are the fuselage, contain the aircraft electronics, the fuel cells that power the Raider, the hydrogen tanks, each one also hosting two electric motors, front and rear, which activate the two-blade rotors allowing VTOL operations. The airframe is made of composite materiel, mostly carbon fibre, to reduce mass as much as possible.
Maximum take-off mass is 119 kg, maximum speed being 20 m/s (72 km/h) which, considering the over 12 hours endurance, means a maximum range of 350 km, depending of course on the datalink installed. The endurance is obtained with a single 1 kg hydrogen fuel tank which fuels the on-board fuel cells providing power to the four motors ensuring the VTOL capacity for the limited period of time during which the Raider performs vertical flight operations, and mostly to the motor activating the pushing propeller. Finding liquid hydrogen in operational areas is definitely not easy. “We have no problems in refuelling the Raider in the field, as we provide our customers with a portable refuelling station capable to produce 2 kg of hydrogen per day, which is therefore enough for 24/7 operations,” Bentzion Levinson, the founder and CEO of Heven Drones tells EDR On-Line.
Beside the endurance, Mr. Levinson strongly underlines the advantages in terms of stealthness of the hydrogen powered solution; “Our aircraft is flying without noise and without thermal signature as there is no combustion. This is a very significant advantage over traditional aircraft powered by an internal combustion engine.” To allow the Raider to operate in very cold weather the two nacelles/fuselage are heated to the right temperature so even when temperature falls to -20°C the Heven Drones aircraft is fully operational.
The Raider payload is carried between the two fuselages; “The payload bay is pretty wide between the two fuselages, it is around one metre,” Mr. Levinson explains. Heven Drones designed different types of transport containers that can be installed in the central bay without using any tool, one of them being visible at the company stand at IDEX. While width is imposed by the aircraft architecture, length is not; the same applies to the container height, as the legs under the nacelles that act as landing gear can be modified and lengthened to allow a greatest stand-off from the ground. So, in the end, width and overall mass, which means container plus actual payload, are the two limiting factors. Munitions, medical supplies, water, food, gasoline, all what first line units may need can be quickly delivered at range by the Raider. Transport containers can be easily swapped when the Raider comes back to base; should the distance between the logistic base and the frontline be sufficiently short, the airframe long endurance would allow a constant flow of resupply, single missions at much longer distance being obviously feasible.
The architecture selected by Heven Drones for its Raider allows not only to deliver supplies landing close to the troops, but also dropping them by parachute overflying the unit; to do so the barycentric position of the payload reduces instability issues following the sudden loss of mass of the aircraft. However, should the payload be made of more than one piece and sequenced drop being performed, the Raider flight control system is fully able to cope with the unbalance; “That is part of our technology,” the company CEO tells EDR On-Line, “It is part of our core technologies, it is what enables us to make our drones into flying robots that could do things, it is the ability to operate on the stability design, and that is actually where Heven comes from,” he adds.
Heven Drones is working closely with the US Department of Defense to answer the requirements coming from various services in the 50-pound (23 kg) range, one of the services showing the greatest interest being the Marine Corps.
As for the Raider programme status, “We are in the final stage of development. Throughout 2025 we are going to be in flight test, improving out the platform, and then in 2026 we are going to start deliver to customers,” the founder of Heven Drones concludes.
Photos by P. Valpolini