Role & capabilities
- Runway-independent surveillance
- Hybrid VTOL and wing-borne flight
- Day and night sensor carriage
- Primary domain
- Air
- System type
- Reconnaissance aircraft
- Developer / manufacturer
- ALTI Unmanned
- Origin / production countries
- South Africa
- Other names
- Transition VTOL
- Variants / configurations
- Published supplier baseline; US government measurement-campaign configuration
- Operators / programme customers
- Nigeria Police Force — acquisition announced March 2022
Evidence & current status
Security-operator acquisition is documented. Manufacturer-profile and test-aircraft configurations differ; current production data and exact delivered Nigerian configuration remain unresolved.
ALTI Transition is a South African fixed-wing surveillance aircraft with vertical take-off and landing capability. The manufacturer's profile published by the Commercial Aviation Manufacturing Association of South Africa identifies ALTI's Knysna base and describes the Transition as a shipping product used for security and observation work. Its combination of powered lift and wing-borne flight distinguishes it from a conventional multirotor.
A Nigeria Police statement dated March 2022 names Transition among newly acquired surveillance aircraft. That is security-operator procurement evidence, not proof of a South African military fleet or Nigerian Air Force ownership. Public appearances alongside military equipment should not automatically reassign an aircraft to a different service.
Published specifications vary by date and source. This entry uses the manufacturer-supplied association profile for its advertised configuration, while a US government measurement report records different mass and payload values for a particular test aircraft. Those records can coexist as separate configurations; their maxima must not be combined. Current manufacturer access and dated production sheets remain gaps, and the operator statement's endurance claim is not treated as the standard performance figure.
Sourced specifications
Figures apply to the named configuration. Maximum values are not guaranteed operating performance.
| Specification | Reported value | Context & source |
|---|---|---|
| Airframe | Hybrid fixed-wing VTOL | Manufacturer-supplied CAMASA profile. Source ↗ |
| Launch / recovery | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗ |
| Propulsion | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗ |
| Dimensions | Wingspan 3 m | Association-profile configuration. Source ↗ |
| Mass | US test aircraft: 11.8 kg empty; 18 kg maximum | Operator-supplied values in the measurement report, not a universal Transition specification. Source ↗ |
| Endurance | Up to 8 hours | Supplier-profile claim; not the separate 12/14-hour claims in other records. Source ↗ |
| Range | Up to 600 km total flight distance | Supplier-profile claim; not control radius. Source ↗ |
| Speed | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗ |
| Altitude | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗ |
| Payload | Up to 1 kg | Supplier-profile configuration; the US test report records 1.5 kg for its particular aircraft. Source ↗ |
| Sensors | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗ |
| Communications / navigation | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗ |
Documented milestones
Police acquisition announced
Nigeria Police names ALTI Transition in a mixed UAV acquisition; type-specific quantity is not given.
Read the announcement ↗
Publication history
- — Added in the September 2026 global coverage review, with sources, configuration limits and explicit data gaps.
Suggest a correction to this entry →
Follow the evidence
Source types identify who makes the claim. Programme milestones and supplier statements should be read in context.
- ALTI: manufacturer profile published by CAMASA (opens in a new tab)Manufacturer
- US DOT Volpe: UAV noise-measurement report and aircraft configuration (opens in a new tab)Government
- Nigeria Police: 30 March 2022 acquisition statement, reproduced by PRNigeria (opens in a new tab)Government statement reproduced by publisher