LancasterAerospace
FLOCK drone target component.

Collective Phase Vectoring™

Driving rare earth free power

FLOCK targets are powered by our patent-pending Collective Phase Vectoring (CPV) drive. A single central motor drives all propellers at a common speed. Flight control is achieved by independently varying the pitch of each propeller while compensating for gyroscopic precession. The result is a net virtual collective whose vector is controlled by the flight controller.

This replaces the conventional drone architecture of four separate rare-earth motors, four speed controllers, and four independent drive systems with a single mechanical drivetrain. Fewer components means lower cost, simpler assembly, and a production process we can automate entirely.

And most importantly, it eliminates the need for rare-earth magnets.

FM21 ferrite BLDC motor

The FM21 is a custom axial-flux brushless DC motor designed and built by Lancaster Aerospace. It uses ferrite ceramic magnets instead of the neodymium rare-earth magnets found in virtually every other drone motor on the market.

The FM21 was designed from scratch around the lower flux density of ferrite, using an axial-flux architecture optimised specifically for this magnet type. The result is a motor that eliminates rare-earth dependency while achieving the performance required for lightweight UAS applications.

Every other drone motor on the market depends on neodymium permanent magnets. The global supply of neodymium is highly concentrated. The FM21 removes that dependency entirely. It can be manufactured from domestically available materials with zero rare-earth content.

FM21 axial-flux ferrite brushless DC motor.
140Woutput power
~130gmotor mass
Ferritemagnet type
Axial-fluxarchitecture

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