News

November 6, 2007 — Army Awards Vertigo Five-Year Production Contract. The U.S. Army has awarded Vertigo a five-year contract to manufacture up to 480 STAT AirBeam™ shelters a year. These shelters will replace the aluminum frame TEMPER tent used in Force Provider, the Army’s premier base camp. Designated “Air-Supported TEMPER” by the Product Manager Force Sustainment System, Vertigo’s 640 sq ft STAT can be deployed by two soldiers in less than 10 minutes. Force Provider’s revolutionary Expeditionary Base Camp — comprising ten Vertigo STATs; containerized kitchen, showers, laundry, and latrine; and water reuse system — is the Army’s newest forward operating camp, capable of supporting 150 troops indefinitely. Made possible by the lightweight, low volume, high-pressure AirBeam™ tent framework, the entire Expeditionary Base Camp can be transported in a single C-17 and fully deployed by eight troops in less than four hours.

February 26, 2007 — Glen Brown Honored By AIAA. Vertigo’s co-founder and chief engineer, Glen Brown, has been named the recipient of the 2007 Theodor W. Knacke Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems Award by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The Knacke Award is the world’s top honor in the field, rewarding significant contributions to the effectiveness and safety of aeronautical and aerospace systems through the development and application of the art and science of aerodynamic decelerator technology. Glen is cited for “breakthroughs in parafoil flight mechanics and parachute guidance and soft-landing as well as advances in supersonic and hypersonic planetary aerobraking and decelerator systems.”

June 27, 2006 — Vertigo engineers awarded patent. Roy Haggard, founder and Chief Technologist, and Roger McCracken, Director of Engineering, were awarded U.S. Patent No. 7,066,428 B1 for the Unfolding Wing for Air-Launched Low Speed Vehicles. The two engineers invented and successfully demonstrated an aircraft wing that unfolds at the root upon aircraft launch from a UAV, rocket, or other carrier vehicle. Wings that deploy by pivoting at the root are common on cruise missiles, but there are other types of aircraft that must fly for long duration at relatively low speed. These aircraft require a relatively large wing area, which this invention provides through a chordwise expansion of the wing upon launch. The chordwise expansion allows as much as three times greater wing area as other unfolding stowed wings within the same stowed volume.

May 9, 2006 — Vertigo displayed its 430-square foot STAT 21.5 rapidly deployable AirBeam™ shelter system at the 2006 Florida Governor's Hurricane Conference from 9-11 May at the Greater Ft. Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center. See www.flghc.org for full details. Vertigo's STAT is ideally suited for the first response to natural disasters where climate-controlled shelter for refugees and emergency workers is a must. Deployable in under 15 minutes, STAT shelters come with their own portable power generator and are equipped with lighting, power distribution, phone and data-link wiring, and HVAC.