unmanned aircraft systems droneseijournal.com/01drones.pdf · unmanned aerial vehicle (uav)...

drones

the FAA says that is rapidly changing.Researchers at Teal Group claim that

unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) spend-ing will more than double during the next decade. Current annual worldwide expenditures of $4.9 billion eventually will balloon to $11.5 billion a year, total-ing more than $80 billion during the next 10 years. More than half the growth will come from the United States, followed by Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, with only modest participation by Latin America.

According to Colorado Springs-based research firm Market Intel Group, many nations have at least begun working to-ward manufacturing UAVs, but given the rapid pace of such work, which often is

shrouded in secrecy, the picture can’t be 100 percent complete; it does, however, indicate a general trend toward technolog-ical sophistication or progress (Figure 1).

DoD Leads the WayThe number of drones employed by

the Department of Defense (DoD) has shot up from fewer than 50 before 2000 to nearly 7,000 today, ranging from small hand-launched models to the larger, more exotic Predators, Reapers and Global Hawks with price tags in the tens of millions of dollars. The U.S. Air Force, which currently flies more than 40 UAS missions a day, is aiming for 65 daily missions by the end of fiscal 2013. So far, the superstar has been the Air Force’s

13SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010© 2010 Earthwide Communications LLC, www.eijournal.com

By Jeff Specht, principal, Earthwide Communications, Greeley, Colo.

he mere words “Predator armed with Hellfire missiles” are enough to strike fear in the heart of any terrorist seeking refuge in the Afghanistan or Pakistan countryside. Stealthy and surgically precise, the Predator unmanned aircraft system (UAS) with advanced

targeting capabilities is among the most feared weapons in the war against terror.

Thanks to aggressive adoption by the U.S. military during the last decade, UASs have swarmed the planet, and some experts predict there’s no end in sight. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), approximately 50 companies, universities and government organizations in the United States alone are developing and producing more than 150 unmanned aircraft designs. They may have wingspans as large as a Boe-ing 737 or smaller than a radio-controlled model airplane. Until now, the UAS primarily has supported military and national security efforts, but

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010 © 2010 Earthwide Communications LLC, www.eijournal.com12

Unmanned aircraft systems are DoD’s deadly darlings, but how soon will friendly ones penetrate the civil market?

U n m a n n e d A i r c r a f t S y s t e m s

Figure 1. Unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturing nations by capability.

Generic: micro or low altitudeMedium Capability: >24 hours — payload >200 kg.High Capacity: >24 hours — payload >1,000 kg.Extreme Endurance: >7 days

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The number of

drones employed by

the Department of

Defense has shot

up from fewer than

50 before 2000 to

nearly 7,000 today,

ranging from small

hand-launched

models to the

larger, more exotic

Predators, Reapers

and Global Hawks.

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During WWi, Orville Wright was an advisor on the U.S. army’s first Uav, the Kettering Bug, which was being developed as a top-secret unmanned flying bomb.

On its first test flight in 1918, Wright observed that it was rolling too slowly to become airborne—he was proved correct moments later when it crashed.

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(Figure 2), including innovative future systems comprising UAVs that can refuel each other in flight, a UAS with global strike capabilities and a miniscule UAV small enough to fit in a soldier’s pocket. “The Air Force UAS Flight Plan” describes such a UAV as “game chang-ing” and claims, “Development of the nano/micro [UAS] class will introduce capabilities never before realized—these include the ability to perform surveil-lance missions inside buildings and in confined spaces.”

GAO: Not So FastSuch prolific growth is bound to

be accompanied by growing pains, as underscored by a General Accountability Office (GAO) March 2010 report conclud-ing that the Air Force and Army don’t talk to each other enough while building their UAS fleets “… too fast to fully flesh out a game plan and coordinate efforts.” Air Force officials recently had to extend a job freeze for UAS operators through September 2011. The freeze was initi-ated in fall 2007 because too few airmen have been trained to fly a UAV (see “How Much Should Humans Matter?” at right).

Among GAO concerns are inadequate airspace, personnel or aircraft to support UAV training; lack of backup satellite relays to support Air Force UAS missions in case of a disruption; simulators with limited capabilities, e.g., some that can’t replicate the system updates that are sent directly to combat troops in the field; and Army UAS operators in Afghanistan who are experiencing fatigue because they are overworked beyond prescribed levels.

Regardless, as military minds work through these concerns and continue to expand UAS capabilities, larger aerospace and defense companies are seeking to cash in on the bonanza, often by acquir-ing smaller UAS developers. During the last several years, the following deals were inked:

• Northrop Grumman purchased the Killer Bee UAV line from Swift Engineering.

• Textron purchased AAI Corp., maker of the Shadow UAV.


Predator. Built by General Atomics and operational for 15 years, it was the first drone deployed following the 9/11 attacks. Predators currently log about 5,000 hours a week, approaching a combined 1 mil-lion hours of combat flight.

How valuable is such a weapon? On Aug. 24, 2010, at a ground-breaking cer-emony at Southern California Logistics Airport for the Air National Guard’s first hangar designed specifically for drones, James “Snake” Clark, director of the Air Force Combat Support Office and deputy chief of staff for Air and Space Operations, told the crowd that of all the war machines deployed overseas,

the enemy most fears the Predator and MQ-9 Reaper.

This fall, it only gets worse for the enemy. According to the Air Force, its new Gorgon Stare camera system will revolutionize how troops receive imagery in the field. The new full-motion video system, named after Gorgons—mythical creatures whose gazes turned enemies into stone—will debut aboard an MQ-9 Reaper, then possibly aboard the RQ-4 Global Hawk later (see “Enabling the Full Motion Video Analyst,” page 26).

Looking ahead, DoD UAS roadmaps extending out as far as 2047 call for aggressively exploiting such systems



How Much Should Humans Matter?

Even with today’s vast array of unmanned aircraft systems (UASs), philoso-phies within U.S. military ranks, especially between branches, vary widely on how such systems should be designed and deployed.

One view is to let the UAS technology do the heavy lifting. Here, the desired scenario is to preprogram an entire mission from start to finish, while the opera-tor—who may or may not be an experienced pilot—intervenes only if prompted by situational changes. Examples include AeroVironment’s hand-launched Raven and Insitu’s ScanEagle, which uses intelligent software that lets the UAS fly autonomously. Insitu touts the system’s low-personnel requirements—a single operator can control more than one ScanEagle simultaneously.

Conversely, many have a conviction that pilots with actual flight experience make the best UAS operators, and such systems should be designed to incor-porate the human factor as a mission component. One example is the Preda-tor, which is controlled by multiple pilots at the same time, each performing a mission-critical task.

Even for trained pilots, however, flying a UAS presents unique challenges unlike those experienced in the cockpit. One description of what a UAS pilot is up against is that he or she is flying an aircraft while looking at the world through a soda straw—at best, a 30-degree field of vision.

Additionally, Kevin Williams, a Federal Aviation Administration authority on vertigo, says many of the vital sensory clues that warn of impending risk during conven-tional flight aren’t in the UAS equation. He points out that changes to ambient noise, the sensation of pitch and yaw, vibra-tion—even the sense of smell—are important indicators of potential problems in the cockpit but are absent in a UAS environment.

NASA test pilot Mark Pestana compares it with stepping into the cockpit and losing four of your five senses—all you have is vision. In fact, the highly experienced NASA test pilots who fly the agency’s Ikhana, a civilian version of General Atomics’ MQ-9 Reaper, all agree that flying the Ikhana UAS is harder than flying an F-18 fighter—much harder.

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USV

This fall, it only gets worse for the enemy. According to the Air Force, its new Gorgon Stare Camera System will revolutionize how troops receive imagery in the field.

Figure 2. The DoD vision of unmanned systems through 2032 highlights unmanned aircraft systems.

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During WWii, David Conover, a private in Capt. ronald reagan’s 1st Motion Picture Company, was assigned to take photos of women supporting the war effort. at the

radioplane Company in van Nuys, Calif., which produced unmanned target drones for the army and Navy, he found Norma Jeane Dougherty on a Uav assembly line

and suggested she attend modeling school. She did, then landed a role in the 1947 film “Dangerous Years” and changed her name to Marilyn Monroe. The rest is history.Trivia

A U.S. soldier hand launches an AeroVironment Raven in Iraq. The Raven can be controlled in flight by an operator or programmed with Global Positioning System waypoints to fly autonomously.

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• Boeing purchased Insitu, maker of the ScanEagle UAV.

• BAE Systems purchased Advanced Ceramics Research, maker of three small UAVs.

The Civil Market: Setting the StageOn Aug. 2, 2010, outside Washington,

D.C., a U.S. Navy MQ-8B Fire Scout UAV was 75 minutes into a routine flight when operators lost control. It flew on its own for 23 miles, at one point entering restricted airspace in the

National Capital Region, before opera-tors could regain control. It stands to reason that if the U.S. Navy can lose a UAV, so can anyone.

That scenario typifies just one of the FAA’s concerns as it struggles to craft guidelines for a coming wave of civil-ian UASs. The agency clearly defines its role—safety first. Key questions include:

• How will the UAS handle communi-cation, command and control?

• How will the UAS sense and avoid other aircraft?

To answer these questions, FAA creat-ed the Unmanned Aircraft Program Office (UAPO) and the Air Traffic Organization (ATO) to accommodate the introduction of UASs into the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS). The agency also is work-ing with NASA, DoD and UAS manufac-turers to ensure a coordinated effort.

FAA says it needs to review more safety data to make informed decisions, but such data are limited and the statistics that are available are not impressive. For instance, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol data from fiscal year 2006 through July 13, 2010, show a total of 5,699 UAS flight hours, with an accident rate of 52.7 accidents per 100,000 flight hours. That’s more than seven times the general aviation accident rate and a staggering 353 times the com-mercial aviation accident rate.

NAS sees an average of 100,000 avia-tion operations a day, including commer-cial air traffic, cargo operations and busi-ness jets; and with as many as 238,000 general aviation aircraft in the system at any time, FAA’s chief concern is two-fold—that a UAS doesn’t endanger other NAS users, nor compromise the safety of persons or property on the ground.

Currently, there are two ways to law-fully operate a UAS in the NAS. One is a Special Airworthiness Certificate- Experimental Category. Since July 2005, the agency says it has issued 71 experimen-tal certificates covering 17 aircraft types.

The other option is a Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA). But according to several companies seeking COAs, this process moves at a snail’s pace. A company officer for one supplier of UAS military control systems eager to enter the commercial market laments that his company is at a standstill be-cause he can’t get COAs.

Despite its safety concerns, the FAA is moving ahead, albeit cautiously. The



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AIR

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Trivia Toward the end of WWii, the U.S. Navy attempted to use PB4Y Liberators,

whose airframe lives were expired, as unmanned one-way bombers against

Germany. Two crewmen would take the plane up, point it in the right direction

and bail out before it crossed the English Channel. President John F. Kennedy’s

older brother Lt. Joseph Kennedy was aboard such an attempt that exploded

prematurely over England, killing Kennedy and the other crewman.

continued on page 18

Sky Snake UAV Set To Make U.S. Debut

Topping the list as the most unique unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is the STS-111 SkySat from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Sanswire. The 126-foot-long, lighter-than-air UAV designed for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions at altitudes between 30,000 feet and 45,000 feet features a pro-prietary teardrop design that incorporates five independent gas cells housed in a specialized envelope of rip-top nylon.

The STS-111, a joint development between Sanswire and TAO technologies GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany, can fly almost 40 mph and can stay aloft for three days. Sanswire claims the UAV’s flight duration exceeds anything on the market because of its design. The company says it costs about $3 million to purchase one and about $50 an hour to operate, compared with a Predator that costs between $12 million and $18 million and around $2,000 or more an hour to operate.

The STS-111’s snake-like flexible design lets it handle cross winds in a way that it bleeds off the energy of wind gusts, enabling the craft to stay on course better—or in the case of persistent loitering for military or border patrol applications, hold its place more efficiently than other lighter-than-air vehicles. The first STS-111 arrived in the United States from Germany in June 2010 and is being fitted with ISR sensors and related equipment by Easton, Md., engineering firm Eastcor, a DoD-qual-ified prime contractor, after which the company says it will be ready to demonstrate the UAV’s capabilities to potential customers.

A Sanswire-TAO lighter-than-air UAV features an innovative segmented design that enables efficient navigation in high winds.

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agency is working with law enforcement agencies in Houston and Miami to iden-tify the challenges of bringing a UAS into an urban environment and what types of operations can safely be conducted by law enforcement.

Additionally, the FAA operates its own UASs to help further its knowledge about these aircraft. AAI and General Atomics have provided simulators, while Insitu recently provided a ScanEagle system under a cooperative research and devel-opment agreement. The agency plans to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking covering UAVs weighing less than 55 lbs. by the first quarter of 2011.

Applications Abound

When it comes to using a UAS for civilian tasks, ap-plications are lim-ited only by one’s imagination. In its “Civil UAV Capa-bility Assessment” NASA lists 35 ap-plications, ranging from coastal patrol and forest fire mapping to wildlife

census and invasive plant assessment, which can benefit directly from a UAS. The agency flies its own UAS, the Ikhana, which it uses to conduct Earth science missions while demonstrating new and exciting UAS capabilities. (Figure 3).

Meanwhile, civil UAS use is taking root in the United States and around the world. The U.S. Forest Service has been using drones for the last five years to help fight wildfires in the western United States. Researchers in Australia have used a UAS to monitor humpback whale and dugong populations. Farmers in South Africa are affordably surveying farmland with small UAVs. And at a July 2010

workshop hosted by the National Acad-emies to discuss a vision for disaster re-sponse in 2020, some panelists said UAVs already have replaced satellites as the preferred platform for some missions, and their importance will continue to grow.

Once UAS technology advances to the point where it can sufficiently satisfy the FAA’s safety concerns, the door will swing wide open for commercial opportunities,

and perhaps not just for the UAS as we know it today. Consider the possibilities for full-size piloted aircraft reconfigured to fly with UAS-type avionics. Imagine all the planes in the combined fleets of Fed Ex and UPS delivering packages autono-mously—no pilots in the cockpits. It may just be a matter of time.



Once UAS technology

advances to the point

where it can sufficiently

satisfy the FAA’s safety

concerns, the door will

swing wide open for

commercial opportunities.

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The first successful atlantic crossing by a Uav was accomplished by an insitu

aerosonde Laima on aug. 20-21, 1988, flying from Bell island, Newfoundland,

Canada, to Benbecula, Outer Hebrides, Scotland, in 26 hours and 45 minutes.

a Northrop Grumman Global Hawk made the first successful Pacific crossing

april 20-22, 2001, flying from Edwards air Force Base, Calif., to Edinburgh royal

australian air Force Base—a distance of 8,214 miles—in 23 hours.

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Figure 3. NASA’s Ikhana UAS (right), a civilian version of General Atomics’ MQ-9 Reaper, flies through smoky skies on a wildfire imaging mission near Lake Arrowhead, Calif. Ikhana is a Native American word from the Choctaw Nationmeaning “intelligent, conscious or aware.”NASA crewmen (below), load a thermal infrared imager into Ikhana’s underwing payload pod.

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