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Aviation History
1993
1993 - 1783.PDF
First two TRW/ IAI short-range UAVs emerge The team of TRW/Israel Air craft Industries has pro duced two of seven short-range unmanned air-vehicle (UAV) systems, funded by a $171 mil lion low-rate initial-production contract awarded in January. Each system includes two ground-control stations; a mis sion-planning station, with re mote video terminals; modular mission payloads; launch and recovery subsystems; and eight air vehicles. Plans are to pro cure a total of 50 systems for the US Army, US Marine Corps and US Navy. The short-range UAV has been given the US military nomenclature of BQM-155A, while the Hunter UAV has been renamed the Hugin, after the raven in Norse mythology. The full-scale production deci sion is scheduled for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 1995. The twin-engined UAV is scheduled to be used by the US Army and USMC for 8-12h battlefield reconnaissance and surveillance missions in an op erating radius of 150km (80nm) beyond the forward line of troops. TRW and IAI have signed an agreement to pursue a spec trum of UAV programmes in the USA. The deal calls for the two to work as in integrated team, offering systems which meet other Pentagon UAV pro gramme requirements. • As part of a diversification plan, Martin Marietta Arma ment Systems (MMAS), of Burlington, Vermont, has teamed with Rotary Power In ternational (RPI), of Woodridge, New Jersey, for the development and production of powerplanats for UAVs, using the RPI 40-Series stratified- charge rotary heavy-fuel en gines. According to MMAS officials, TRW will seek bidders either late this year or in early 1994 for a Block II engine upgrade for the short-range UAV. MMAS will propose the AS-240 engine for the UAV improvement effort. • UNMANNED AIR VEHICLES Kaman hones multi- mission technology... BY RAMON LOPEZ IN WASHINGTON DC Raman Aerospace continues to evaluate unmanned-air- vehicle (UAV) applications of its multi-mission intermeshing- rotor technology. The company intends to re spond to a Pentagon UAV Joint Project Office (JPO) request for proposals for a vertical launch and recovery (VLAR) demon stration programme, expected to be issued before 1994. VLAR is one of several dem onstration projects for a verti cal take-off and landing (VTOL) UAV. Another is the tilt-rotor demonstration in volving Bell Helicopter Tex tron, with the Eagle Eye UAV. A third VTOL effort involves the rotary-wing Canadair CL- 227 Sentinel. A successful demonstration of the Canadian-built UAV, with a turbine engine driving co-axial, counter-rotating ro tors, was completed in 1992 under the JPO's NATO-sup ported maritime-VTOL UAV system (MAVUS) programme. The CL-227 is being upgraded for a follow-on MAVUS II demonstration. Under the designation Spy glass, Kaman Aerospace has spent the past four years study ing a family of stealthy and conventional UAVs, scaleable in size and gross weight from 550kg to 5,500kg. Spyglass ad vanced preliminary design work has been completed and prototypes built for the VLAR project would be powered by a derivative of the Williams In ternational 170kW (225hp) gas-turbine auxiliary power unit on the Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66 helicopter. The company believes that the Spyglass could satisfy the UAV JPO's future requirement for a follow-on short-range UAV and a joint-service VTOL UAV. It views the Bell Eagle Eye and a scaled-up CL-227 Sentinel as competitors. Other contenders include McDonnell Douglas' stopped-rotor Canard < ll Rotor/Wing and Freewing Air craft's Manta tilt-body. The VTOL UAV work is just part of a family of vehicles, with the JPO having awarded contracts for two of a possible five UAV classes. Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical continues to develop the BQM- 145 medium-range UAV for the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, while the TRW/IAI team is providing a short-range UAV for the US Army and Marines. The demise of the Martin Marietta advanced tactical air- ...Bell celebrates Eagle Eye flight Bell Helicopter Textron flew the Eagle Eye tilt-rotor un manned air vehicle (UAV) for the first time on 10 July. Five flights are now planned before two aircraft are delivered in August to Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona, for 40h of flight-testing. The initial 15min flight was designed to check the Eagle Eye's avionics and flight con trols. It included hovering the vehicle at 5ft (1.5m) and 20ft while the external pilot put the aircraft through pitch, roll and yaw manoeuvres. Bell is completing a second Eagle Eye, to be used as a back-up vehicle for the flight demonstrations. The trials at Yuma are designed to gather data on performance and flying qualities to assist in defining the requirements for a UAV with a vertical take-off and landing capability. Bell leads a team which in cludes Scaled Composites (pro viding the airframe), Allison (supplying the Model 250-C20 turboshaft) and Israel Aircraft Industries (providing the proto type CGS 3000 ground station, developed for the IAI/TRW Hunter short-range UAV). • Jupiter proposed for border patrols BY DOUGLAS BARRIE IN TRIESTE Italian unmanned-air-vehicle (UAV) specialist Meteor has proposed an airship-based UAV to provide maritime and border air-surveillance. The Jupiter system has an endurance of up to 24h, and information on it has been presented to the Italian defence ministry and customs authorities. Fulvio Gagliardi, Meteor's general director, says: "We've proposed Jupiter to customs to patrol the Adriatic, and offered it to the defence ministry, equi pped with a moving-target in dicator radar." Gagliardi says that the com pany, a subsidiary of Finmec- canica, is now waiting for a response to its proposals from the customs department. For the maritime-patrol role, the system would be fitted with a 360°-scan radar providing a surveillance range of up to 100km (55nm). A steerable platform for television and for ward-looking infra-red (FLIR) sensors is also included. Command and control is conducted via line-of-sight datalink, up to a maximum operating distance of 150km. Besides receiving flight- telemetry data, a command- and-control station would also accept radar data and televi- sion/FLIR imagery in real time. The system would also in clude both fixed and mobile landing masts, the latter equip- 18 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 21 - 27 My, 1993
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