What are two great tastes that may possibly taste great together? If you said "Yamaha Motor Company" and "Mitsubishi Heavy Industries," then get yourself a cookie, because the two have apparently been hard at work on a specific joint research project for the past couple of years. What is it? A hybrid, medium-sized unmanned aerial vehicle ('UAV,' or perhaps 'drone' if you're nasty).
As for how the cooperation breaks down, MHI is largely handling the design, manufacturing, and prototyping elements of the vehicle. Meanwhile, Yamaha is "working to develop a compact and lightweight power generating unit by combining technologies for the small, high-power engines that it has cultivated in its two- and four-wheeled vehicle engine business, with the latest electric motor technology."
While certain details are available about the project (which I'll get to in a minute), I'm going to stop right here and think out loud. A Yamaha hybrid engine project, where have I seen that recently? Oh right, I just wrote about Team Blue's first hybrid motorcycle prototype pretty recently.
