UNMANNED AIR VEHICLES - AN ILLUSTRATED STUDY OF UAVS.pdf

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Unmanned Air
Vehicles
An Illustrated Study of UAVs
Bill Holder
I
Schiffer Military/Aviation History
Atglen, PA
Acknolwedgments
1. Kaye LeBeFebure, Scaled Composites
2. Melissa Doboski, Israel Aircraft Industries, Inc.
3. Alan Brown, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
4. Craig Ballard, Pioneer UAV Inc.
5. David Lanman, AFRUVA, USAF
6. Gary Geiger, Alliant Tech Systems
7. Cynthia Curiel, Northrop Grumman Corp.
8. Bruce Hess, ASC History Office, USAF
9. Ed Steadham
&
James Cycon, Sikorsky Aircraft
10. Jay Willmott, BAI Aerosystems
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
4
5
11
20
26
32
:
38
48
56
63
UAV Historical Roots
U.S. Air Force UAVs
U.S. Navy/USMC UAVs
U.S. Army UAVs
Research/Commercial UAVs
Foreign UAVs
Future UAVs
Index of UAVs
Book Design by Ian Robertson.
Copyright
©
2001 by Bill Holder.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2001094439
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any forms
or by any means - graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or
information storage and retrieval systems - without written permission from the
copyright holder.
Printed in China.
ISBN: 0-7643-1500-5
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Foreword
Introduction
Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) have been around for
many years, starting with the Kettering Bug in 1918. In the
past decade or so, UAVs have truly demonstrated their mili-
tary utility, particularly in Desert Storm and the conflicts in the
former Yugoslavia. Now, with UAVs gaining support from mili-
tary leaders and showing great promise for commercial ap-
plication, we are not only entering a new century, we are en-
tering a new era of powered flight.
Bill's book does a great job of highlighting many of the
major UAV programs, past and present, domestic and for-
eign. Bill also touches upon some of the development UAVs
of the future. This book is not only a UAV reference docu-
ment, but it also provides interesting history and background.
A must for every aviation enthusiast's bookshelf!
David M. Lanman
President, Wright-Kettering Chapter
Association for Unmanned Vehicle
Systems International (AUVSI)
UAV. It is the acronym of the new millenium, and could
prove to be the greatest revolution in warfare in many, many
decades. The symbol stands for Unmanned (or Uninhabited)
Air (or Aerial) Vehicle.
The concept for the UAV in a military application is simple:
design an UNMANNED vehicle to do that normally done by a
MANNED aircraft.
Consider the implications of such a change. First, there
IS
the matter of placing a pilot-or even worse, a crew-in
harm's way. Also, should the UAV be lost, it is not necessary
to mount an extensive and very dangerous rescue attempt,
gain putting additional friendlies in danger.
Certain societies do not rate the pilot's life worth such an
effort, but the U.S. and its allies certainly do. You could, there-
fore, say that in certain situations, a UAV would be consid-
ered an expendable vehicle.
Another implication of the manned versus unmanned dis-
cussion is the fact that when the vehicle is inhabited, exten-
sive life support equipment is required, equipment which con-
sumes considerable volume and adds considerable weight.
Therefore, to accomplish the same mission, all other factors
being equal, it would appear that a much smaller, and prob-
ably less detectable, unmanned vehicle could be used. And
in this era of decreasing military budgets, the economic ad-
vantage these vehicles provide is possibly their greatest ad-
vantage.
Surprisingly, just about every type of propulsion system
has been considered to propel I UAVs. They have used both
single and multiple engines, along with piston, rotary, turbo-
jet, pulsejet, or rocket engines. UAVs are used with and with-
out boosters. Sizewise, the UAV family is just about as var-
ied. The unmanned vehicles vary in size from systems that
can be held in the palm of the hand, to vehicles that approach
the size of full-size manned aircraft. They also have just about
every appearance imaginable, from the look of a model air-
plane all the way to the appearance of an advanced stealth
fighter or bomber.
The General Atomics Gnat 750 UAV is used by a number of domestic
and foreign customers for a multitude of missions. (General Atomics
Photo)
~~.
Right: This advanced UAV concept shows an aircraft-appearing vehicle
with wingtip engines and a twin tail with the tails canting inward. The
engine intake is located where the cockpit would normally be. (U.S.
Navy Drawing)
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4
Unmanned Air Vehicles ( UAVs)
Introduction
5
Note the unique twin-wing configuration of the Lears II UAV. UAVs come
in all sizes and shapes. (Bosch Photo)
Some UAVs began life as a manned fighter, such as this QF-4, which
today are used as target drones. (McDonnell-Douglas Photo)
The twin-tail Shadow 200 has been selected by the U.S. military to per-
form during the early decades of the 21st century. (AAI Photo)
With the unmanned implications of the UAV, it becomes
obvious that control for the vehicle must come from an out-
side source, either from the ground (or water) or from the air.
The UAV can use many different types of guidance, such as
pre-programmed, command, radar, radio, active seeker, etc,
or a combination of a number of them.
UAVs performing missions in a military threat environ-
ment have been appropriately named UCAVs, for Unmanned
Combat Air Vehicles. The UAV is more of a general military
tool. Therefore, it is not surprising that within the U.S. military
establishment, along with the military of other countries, that
multiple services use the same UAV system.
Even though the UAV concept seems somewhat revolu-
tionary in nature, it really isn't new, with a number of devia-
tions of the concept being attempted for a number of decades.
One of the most common and well used versions of the
UAV concept is in the use of unmanned drones as maneu-
verable targets for fighter aircraft guns and air-to-air missiles.
Many times, older retired fighters have been used in this func-
tion, with fighter aircraft like the F-80, F-100, F-1 02, and more
recently, the F-4 being used in that capacity. When used in
this application, the target planes are given a Q designation,
ie QF-4. These drones could, in a broad sense, be consid-
ered UAVs.
Of course, much of the technology required to control
and maneuver these "Q" planes applies directly to the devel-
opment of UAVs.
Not all drones were once manned vehicles, but instead
are unmanned vehicles that were designed that way from
scratch.
Through the years, the Air Force and Navy have used
many different drones to hone the offensive skills of their
fighter pilots.
The Ryan Firebee has been used for many years in many
different ver.sions in this capacity. The Firebee is jet-powered
and parachute-recoverable. Initial versions of the Firebee were
first used in the early 1950s.
UAV techniques are even being undertaken with manned aircraft. Here,
a Navy F/A-18 makes a hands-off automatic landing, just as UAVs do.
(Raytheon Photo)
Some UAVs look almost exactly like their manned counter-parts. This
Northrop helicopter-appearing UAV could find its way into operational
service in the future. (Northrop Photo)
The advanced supersonic Firebee II has a Mach 1.78
speed capability and a maximum altitude capability of over
60,000 feet. It should be noted that there have been a num-
ber of other drones built through the years by a number of
manufacturers.
Moving to pure UAV developments, the numbers of dif-
ferent types have been staggering through the decades of
the 1980s and 1990s, and into the new millennium. Of course,
a majority of them did not reach beyond the research or test
phase, but they certainly served to increase the body of tech-
nology for development of these unique vehicles.
It is extremely hard to classify the development of UAVs
into distinct groups, but probably the best way is to consider
them by the various U.S. armed services, other government
agencies, and the multitude of foreign developments.
In the early years of the 21 st century, the USAF was con-
centrating on development of the bulbous Global Hawk, a
jet-powered UAV which will play greatly in Air Force surveil-
The Ryan Firebee drone has been a mainstay with the U.S. military
since the 1960s. (Ryan Photo)
If this vehicle looks something like a manned B·2 bomber, that would
be true, since this Northrop configuration was a candidate for the Un-
manned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) competition. (Northrop Photo)
The NASA X-34 Technology Testbed Demonstrator is a one-of-a-kind UAV designed strictly for research purposes. The system investigated
technologies for future low-cost reuseable launch vehicles. (NASA Photo)
6
Unmanned Air Vehicles
Introduction
7

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