Japanese police raided the offices of the Yamaha Corporation, looking for evidence of illegal export of UAVs to China. However, Yamaha protested that it had been exporting an agricultural UAV, the RMAX, to China, and many other countries, for years.
Yamaha began deliveries of a commercial UAV, the R-50, 18 years ago. It was a remotely controlled helicopter, meant for precisely delivering pesticides on hard to reach Japanese farm fields. Much Japanese farmland is in difficult to reach hillsides and terraces. The helicopter UAV was a cheaper and faster way to apply pesticides.
The R-50 was so successful that, in 1990, an improved model, the RMAX, was delivered. The low altitude (max altitude of 15 feet) model costs $86,000, while a higher flying version goes for up to $230,000. The most expensive system, including ground station, two helicopters and four cameras, cost a million dollars. The current models can stay for 90 minutes at a time, and carry a payload of 66 pounds worth of cameras, batteries and the like. RMAX uses GPS to aid navigation. RMAX can fly up to ten kilometers from its controller (basically a specially equipped laptop computer.)
Source and more info: Strategy Page
Troops’ being on the ground in Iraq is a risky business- the insurgents and anti-Iraqi forces are devious when it comes to placing IEDs and hiding their caches. It always helps to have an extra set of eyes watching over the streets of Iraq.
The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Platoon of A Co., 3rd Special Troops Battalion, 4th Infantry Division from Ft. Carson, Colo., provides the eye in sky. The platoon maintains and operates the “Shadow” UAV. Their mission is to fly route reconnaissance and surveillance, providing intelligence reports for commanders of the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team.
Staff Sgt. Brian Ward, the platoon sergeant of the Shadow platoon and Lebanon, Pa. native said, the Soldiers conducting ground patrols like it when the Shadow is soaring above them. The insurgents know that when the shadow is in the air, they are being watched. This leads to fewer incidents.
Source and more info: Blackanthem Military News
European manufacturers of remote sensors need to bridge the technology gap that exists between them and their US counterparts to avoid missing out on a potentially huge market for military and civil unmanned air vehicles.
European suppliers need to work together, and with their overseas counterparts, to “urgently address the existing capability gap between Europe and the USA, while confronting competition from their US-based rivals”, says consultancy Frost & Sullivan.
To keep up with the USA on technology, European UAV manufacturers must form joint technology demonstrator projects that will eventually become development programmes, such as Neuron and EuroMALE. This will help them overcome the technology gap with the USA, which affects the “reliability, footprint, autonomous level and specific capabilities of UAVs”, says Frost & Sullivan aerospace and defence consulting manager Shai Shammai. But they should not overlook the opportunities provided by collaboration with Israeli and USA companies, he adds. “While both Israeli and US companies need the European primes for their access to markets, the nature of these collaborations will be different depending on the origin of the company.”
Source and more info: Flight International
A three-year rebuilding effort has emerged after the costly collapse of the US Army-led Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) programme. The need for a common sensor package spanning multiple intelligence disciplines remains unchanged, but the search for a suitable airborne platform starts anew.
Lessons from the failure of Lockheed Martin’s ACS system – based on the overwhelmed Embraer ERJ-145 regional jet – have at least narrowed the options for selecting the aircraft type that is to succeed the army’s de Havilland Canada RC-7 Aerial Reconnaissance Low and Beech RC-12 Guardrail, plus the navy’s Lockheed EP-3 Aries II.
Lockheed’s contract has been terminated for convenience after an army expenditure of $200 million. The contractor is allowed to recoup additional expenses under the contract terms, but these are expected to be in the tens of millions of dollars.
A six-month analysis now under way is charged with reviewing all potential alternatives, but army officials have identified two main themes of any feasible replacement strategy. Under one option, the programme can continue to depend on the common sensor approach, but that will probably require an aircraft much larger than the ERJ-145. Alternatively, a similar regional jet – or business jet – could be used, but only if some sensor requirements are performed by a secondary fleet of unmanned aircraft.
Introducing unmanned aircraft into the study effort is perhaps the most critical difference from all previous analyses of suitable aircraft for the ACS mission. At the same time, it raises new questions. The US Army and US Navy, with the US Air Force’s participation, must consider whether the ACS mission deserves a new fleet of dedicated unmanned aircraft.
“The question becomes, does it require a dedicated mission of UAVs or can you do the mission using part of an existing UAV fleet?” says Edward Bair, the army’s programme executive officer for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensor acquisition programmes.
Source and more info: Flight International
In the few short weeks since its inception, Wharton Wings (the Wharton student special-interest aviation organization) is off to a good start on plans to promote general aviation in the Wharton community. Wharton Wings organized its first industry speaker event on January 17th. Marc Kaplan, (WG’00) Director of Strategy at Textron, was the inaugural speaker.
Textron is a $10 billion diversified company which manages a host of well known businesses including Cessna Aircraft, Bell Helicopters and Lycoming Engines. Cessna, a firm synonymous with general aviation around the world, was a natural invitation for the first industry event of Wharton Wings.
Kaplan discussed some of the exciting products in the Cessna lineup. It may come as a surprise that Cessna’s biggest money-makers are actually business jets in the Citation series, rather than the single engine propeller Cessna planes with which the brand is usually associated. Students also enjoyed a preview and discussion of the Cessna Citation Mustang, one of the most exciting products the company expects to unveil this year. The Mustang competes in a brand new industry segment called the Very Light Jet (VLJ), which is centered around the needs of a small to medium sized business owners who fly their own aircraft and don’t want to rely on the unpredictability of commercial airlines. With a price tag of $2.4 million and some nifty cockpit technology, the Mustang has been gathering significant attention and interest from aviation enthusiasts.
Source and more info: Wharton Journal
The U.S. Air Force is upset that the U.S. Army is buying over 130 “Improved Predators” (called “Warrior”), with deliveries to begin in three years. These aircraft will cost about six million dollars each. The air force controls all the Predators currently in service (except for some the CIA operates). The air force has always been touchy about the army owning fixed wing aircraft. The army can have some, well, not many, and the air force must approve. But that rule blurred a bit when it came to UAVs. The air force would like to establish and enforce some “who can own what UAV” rules before things get out of hand. The air force thought they had a good case with the Warrior. It was basically an improved Predator. Slightly less endurance (36 hours), but about the same payload (four missiles, Hellfires of Viper-Strikes). Warrior is being built by General Atomic, who also designed and built the Predator. But the army told the air force to back off, and made their case by pointing out that the Warrior was meant to be, among other chores, a scout for Apache helicopter gunships, with one or more Warriors being controlled by Apache pilots flying nearby. Moreover, the Warriors would also carry wireless network antennae, to act as repeaters for radio traffic from troops on the ground. All this was an argument that was reasonable and compelling, so the air force had to back off. But all these UAVs are making the air force nervous. The way things are going, the air force will soon be nothing but ground crews for unmanned aircraft. Not that this is anything new. Back in the 1960s, when it became clear that the ICBM was a superior nuclear weapon delivery system, the air force generals had to grin and bear it, although they kept building manned bombers. But now, all a bomber has to do is drop a GPS guided smart bomb. A UAV can do that. In fact, one of the few things a UAV has not proved itself good at yet is operating helicopter gunships or ground attack aircraft (the A-10 and AC-130), aircraft mostly of use just to the army.
Source and more info: Strategy Page
The U.S. Navy and Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) wrote a new chapter in naval aviation history Jan. 16-17, when two RQ-8A Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) completed nine autonomous shipboard landings on board USS Nashville (LPD 13) off the coast of Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.
This test marks the first time a Navy UAV has performed vertical landings on a moving ship without a pilot controlling the aircraft. The RQ-8A is a test version of the newer MQ-8B Fire Scout being developed by Northrop Grumman for the Navy and the U.S. Army. The MQ-8B Fire Scout is the aircraft element of a complete system called the Vertical takeoff and landing Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTUAV) system.
“This event is significant for the Navy because it continues to move the Fire Scout program forward - scheduled to arrive in the fleet in 2008,” said Cmdr. Rob Murphy, the Navy’s VTUAV integrated product team leader. “The Nashville’s crew and Northrop Grumman’s test team did a marvelous job, and the outcome of the test fulfilled our expectations about the vehicle’s ability to land on and take off from a moving ship.”
Source and more info: NORTHROP GRUMMAN
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is calling for the creation of a body to co-ordinate introduction of routine unmannned air vehicle operations in the continent’s controlled airspace.
The recommendation is part of an EASA effort to implement regulations to allow “normalised” UAV flights in non-segregated airspace by 2009. The agency says the co-ordination role – which it could theoretically undertake itself – needs to be formalised at a pan-European level because of the complexities involved. It says its own powers are too limited for the task.
A draft type certification basis for UAVs weighing more than 150kg (330lb) being circulated by EASA says “operational use of UAVs is a political decision that goes well beyond the agency’s role and responsibilities”. It adds that EASA “would be ready to go beyond its role if requested and if supported by the European Union, member states and industry”.
Source and more info: Flight International
Protonex Technology Corporation, a leading manufacturer of high-performance fuel cell power systems for portable and remote applications, was awarded a contract by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to develop power systems for long- endurance micro unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Under the terms of the contract, Protonex will develop compact fuel cell power systems with significantly higher energy density than batteries, enabling aircraft to fly for a significantly longer duration and carry greater payload.
This award follows Protonex’ previous success in demonstrating UAV power systems with the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). In November 2005, the NRL flew the 5.6-pound ‘Spider-Lion’ micro UAV for three hours, 19 minutes with a Protonex fuel cell power system fueled by compressed hydrogen as the sole source of power for the duration of the flight. This demonstrated the potential of fuel cells to offer a significant improvement over batteries for long- endurance UAVs, which are used by the military for surveillance, search and rescue, chemical-biological monitoring and other missions that require extended flight times.
Source and more info: EVWorld
The unmanned vehicle, which has been built by BAE Systems, is known as the Corax, or as the Raven.
The Corax bears some resemblance to a cancelled US military spy plane called DarkStar, analysts have said.
Jane’s International Defence Review said the unmanned aircraft “indicated a new direction in combat vehicles for the UK’s armed forces”.
Bill Sweetman, the magazine’s aerospace and technology editor, said Corax could represent one member of a family of stealthy aircraft based around a similar central body but using different outer wings optimised for different missions.
“If you look at that Corax shape, it’s very reminiscent of something that’s designed to fly fairly high, fairly slow and have quite a long endurance. It looks rather typical for a surveillance aircraft,” he told the BBC News website.
“But if you take those long outer wings off and put on shorter swept wings, you have a somewhat faster aircraft that would be more of a penetrating strike platform.”
Source and more info: BBC
