History of unmanned aerial vehicles
Encyclopedia
Unmanned aerial vehicle
s, known variously as UAVs, drones, and remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs), have been a feature of aviation for much of its history, though often overlooked. For the purposes of this article, and to distinguish UAVs from missile
s, a UAV is defined as being capable of controlled, sustained level flight and powered by a jet or reciprocating engine. The appeal of a military vehicle in which there is no risk of loss of life is quite strong, so the pace of development of UAVs has always reflected the pace of technology in general. Until recently, UAVs have tended to be small, so they depend on technology miniaturization even more than their manned siblings. In the 21st century, the technology has reached a point of sophistication that the UAV is now being given a greatly expanded role in war fighting.
with unmanned balloons loaded with explosives. At least some of the balloons were launched from the Austrian ship Vulcano. Although some of the balloons worked, others were caught in a change of wind and blown back over Austrian lines. The Austrians had been developing this system for months: "The Presse, of Vienna, Austria, has the following: 'Venice is to be bombarded by balloons, as the lagunes prevent the approaching of artillery. Five balloons, each twenty-three feet in diameter, are in construction at Treviso. In a favorable wind the balloons will be launched and directed as near to Venice as possible, and on their being brought to vertical positions over the town, they will be fired by electro magnetism by means of a long isolated copper wire with a large galvanic battery placed on the shore. The bomb falls perpendicularly, and explodes on reaching the ground.'" Although balloons do not generally meet today's definition of a UAV, the concept was strong enough that once winged aircraft had been invented, the effort to fly them unmanned for military purposes was not far behind.
's radio control techniques, was the "Aerial Target" of 1916
. If developed further it was to have been used against Zeppelin
s. Soon after, on September 12, the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane
, otherwise known as the "flying bomb" made its first flight, demonstrating the concept of an unmanned aircraft. They were intended for use as "aerial torpedoes" an early version of today's cruise missile
s. Control was achieved using gyroscope
s developed by Elmer Sperry
of the Sperry Gyroscope Company.ndjsa
Later, in November 1917, the Automatic Airplane was flown for representatives of the US Army. This led the army to commission a project to build an "aerial torpedo", resulting in the Kettering Bug
which first flew in 1918. While the Bug's revolutionary technology was successful, it was not in time to fight in the war, which ended before it could be fully developed and deployed.
s were converted as drones. The Larynx
was an early cruise missile in the form of a small monoplane aircraft that could be launched from a warship and flown under autopilot; it was tested between 1927 and 1929 by the Royal Navy
. The early successes of pilotless aircraft led to the development of radio control
led pilotless target aircraft in Britain and the US in the 1930s. In 1931, the British developed the Fairey "Queen" radio-controlled target from the Fairey IIIF
floatplane, building a small batch of three, and in 1935 followed up this experiment by producing larger numbers of another RC target, the "DH.82B Queen Bee", derived from the De Havilland Tiger Moth
biplane trainer. Through some convoluted path, the name of "Queen Bee" is said to have led to the use of the term "drone" for pilotless aircraft, particularly when they are radio-controlled. However during this period the U.S. Navy, continuing work that reached back to 1917, was also experimenting with radio controlled aircraft. In 1936 the head of this research group used the term "drone" to describe radio controlled aerial targets.
. He served with the British Royal Flying Corps
during World War I, and after the war, immigrated to the United States to seek his fortunes in Hollywood as an actor. Denny had made a name for himself as an actor, and between acting jobs, he pursued his interest in radio control
model aircraft in the 1930s. He and his business partners formed "Reginald Denny Industries" and opened a model plane shop in 1934 on Hollywood Boulevard
known as "Reginald Denny Hobby Shops".
The shop evolved into the "Radioplane Company". Denny believed that low-cost RC aircraft would be very useful for training anti-aircraft gunners, and in 1935 he demonstrated a prototype target drone, the RP-1, to the US Army. Denny then bought a design from Walter Righter in 1938 and began marketing it to hobbyists as the "Dennymite", and demonstrated it to the Army as the RP-2, and after modifications as the RP-3 and RP-4 in 1939. In 1940, Denny and his partners won an Army
contract for their radio controlled RP-4, which became the Radioplane OQ-2. They manufactured nearly fifteen thousand drones for the army during World War II.
It was at the Van Nuys Radioplane factory that in 1944 that Army photographer David Conover saw a young lady named Norma Jeane, and thought she had potential as a model. This "discovery" led to fame for Jeane, who soon changed her name to Marilyn Monroe
.
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The US Navy began experimenting with radio-controlled aircraft during the 1930s as well, resulting in the Curtiss "N2C-2" drone in 1937. The N2C-2 was remotely controlled from another aircraft, called a TG-2. N2C-2 anti-aircraft target drones were in service by 1938.
The US Army Air Forces (USAAF) adopted the N2C-2 concept in 1939. Obsolescent aircraft were put into service as "A-series" anti-aircraft target drones. Since the "A" code would be also used for "Attack" aircraft, later "full-sized" targets would be given the "PQ" designation. USAAF acquired hundreds of Culver "PQ-8" target drones, which were radio-controlled versions of the tidy little Culver Cadet
two-seat light civil aircraft, and thousands of the improved Culver "PQ-14" derivative of the PQ-8. The US also used RC aircraft, including modified B-17 and B-24 bombers in Operation Aphrodite
in combat on a small scale during World War II as very large aerial torpedoes, though with no great success (and the loss of Navy Lieutenants Wilford John Willy and Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.
during the testing phase.)
The Naval Aircraft Factory
assault drone "Project Fox" installed an RCA
television camera in the drone and a television screen in the TG-2 control aircraft in 1941. In April 1942 the assault drone successfully delivered a torpedo
attack on a destroyer
at a range of 20 miles from the TG-2 control aircraft. Another assault drone was successfully crashed into a target moving at eight knots. The Navy Bureau of Aeronautics
then proposed a television-assisted remote control assault drone program of 162 control planes and 1,000 assault drones. Disagreements arose within the Navy concerning the relative advantages of the proposed program for full scale combat implementation versus a small scale combat test with minimum aircraft resource expenditure which might reveal the concept to the enemy and allow development of countermeasures prior to full production. Assault drones remained an unproven concept in the minds of military planners through major allied advances of 1944. Utilization was limited to a 4-drone attack on a beached Japanese merchant ship in the Russell Islands
at the end of July followed by expenditure of 46 drones in the northern Solomon Islands
. Two hits and two near-misses were scored on the stationary ship. Several of the later drones failed to reach their targets, but most were effective.
McDonnell built a pulsejet-powered target, the T2D2-1 Katydid, later the KDD-1 and then KDH-1. It was an air-launched cigar-shaped machine with a straight mid-mounted wing, and a vee tail straddling the pulsejet engine. The Katydid was developed in mid-war and a small number were put into service with the US Navy.
After the war, the Navy obtained small numbers of another pulsejet-powered target, the KD2C Skeet series, built by Curtiss. It was another cigar-shaped machine, with the pulsejet in the fuselage and intake in the nose. It featured straight, low-mounted wings with tip tanks, and a triple-fin tail.
The US military acquired a number of other drones similar in many ways to the Radioplane drones. The Globe company built a series of targets, beginning with the piston-powered "KDG Snipe" of 1946, which evolved through the "KD2G" and "KD5G" pulsejet-powered targets and the "KD3G" and "KD4G" piston-powered targets, to the "KD6G" series of piston-powered targets. The KD6G series appears to have been the only one of the Globe targets to be built in substantial numbers. It was similar in size and configuration to the BTT series, but had a twin-fin tail. It was redesignated "MQM-40" in the early 1960s, by which time it was generally out of service.
The use of drones as decoys goes back at least to the 1950s, with the Northrop Crossbow tested in such a role. The first operational decoy drone was the McDonnell Douglas
"ADM-20 Quail
", which was carried by Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
bombers to help them penetrate defended airspace.
By the late 1950s combat aircraft were capable of Mach 2, and so faster targets had to be developed to keep pace. Northrop designed a turbojet-powered Mach 2 target in the late 1950s, originally designated the Q-4 but later given the designation of AQM-35
. In production form, it was a slender dart with wedge-shaped stubby wings, swept conventional tail assembly, and a GE J85 turbojet engine, like that used on the Northrop F-5 fighter.
(Operation Crossroads
) to gather samples from inside the radioactive cloud. During test Baker, two drones were flown directly above the explosion; when the shock wave
reached them, both gained height, and the lowest was damaged. The U.S. Navy conducted similar tests with Grumman F6F Hellcat drones. The B-17 drones were employed in a similar manner in Operation Sandstone
in 1947, and in Operation Greenhouse
in 1951. In this latter test, also several Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star jets were used, modified into drones by Sperry Corporation
; however, the complex system resulted in a very high accident rate. One of the B-17 drones, tail number 44-83525, is currently under restoration at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base.
The success of drones as targets led to their use for other missions. The well-proven Ryan Firebee
was a good platform for such experiments
, and tests to evaluate it for the reconnaissance
mission proved highly successful. A series of reconnaissance drones derived from the Firebee, the Ryan Model 147 Lightning Bug
series, were used by the US to spy on North Vietnam
, Communist China, and North Korea
in the 1960s and early 1970s.
The Lightning Bugs were not the only long-range reconnaissance
drones developed in the 1960s. The US developed other, more specialized reconnaissance drones: the Ryan "Model 154", the Ryan and Boeing
"Compass Cope
s", and the Lockheed "D-21"
, all of which were more or less cloaked in secrecy.
also developed a number of reconnaissance drones, though since many programs the Soviets pursued were cloaked in secrecy, details of these aircraft are unclear and contradictory.
. Spy satellites were another year and half away, and the SR71 Blackbird was still on the drawing board. In such climate, concerns appeared about the negative publicity from the foreseen capture of US airmen on the communist territory. Pilots' fears were realized in May 1960, when U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the USSR. Not surprisingly, work intensified on an unmanned drone which would be capable of penetrating deep into enemy territory, and return with precise military intelligence. Within three months of the downing of the U2, the highly classified UAV (called RPV back then) program was born, under the code name of Red Wagon.
Just after the incident involving the US Navy destroyer USS Maddox
, and even before it escalated into presidential "Tonkin Gulf Resolution" and war with North Vietnam
, the USAF had issued an immediate order for the UAV units to deploy immediately for Southeast Asia
on any available C130
s or C-133s. The first birds (drones) would be Ryan 147Bs piggy-backed on C-130s, after mission parachuted for recovery near Taiwan
.
From August 1964, until their last combat flight on 30 April 1975 (the fall of Saigon), the USAF 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing would launch 3,435 Ryan reconnaissance drones over North Vietnam and it's surrounding areas, at a cost of about 554 UAVs lost to all causes during the war.
The usefulness of robot aircraft for reconnaissance had been demonstrated in Vietnam. At the same time, early steps were being taken to use them in active combat at sea and on land
, but battlefield Unmanned aerial vehicle
s (UAV) would not come into their own until the 1980s.
During the early years, target drones were often launched from aircraft; or off a rail using solid-fuel rocket assisted takeoff (RATO
) boosters; or hydraulic, electromagnetic
, or pneumatic catapult
. Very small target drones can be launched by an elastic bungee catapult. Few target drones have landing gear, and so they are generally recovered by parachute or, in some cases, by a skid landing. Beginning in April 1966, and lasting through the end of the war in 1975, the USAF successfully conducted approximately 2,655 Mid-Air Retrieval System (MARS) catches, out of 2,745 attempts, primarily using the Ryan 147J model drone.
The most combat sorties flown during the war were made by the Ryan 147SC (military designation AQM-34L) with 1,651 missions. About 211 AQM-34Ls were lost during the war. The highest mission bird was a 147SC, named "Tom Cat", it accomplished 68 combat missions in Vietnam, before failing to return on 25 September 1974. Tom Cat was followed by Budweiser (with 63 missions), Ryan's Daughter (52 missions), and Baby Duck (46 missions).
The largest UAVs in Vietnam were the 147T, TE, and TF (Military model
AQM-34P, 34Q, and 34R). These machines were 30' long, and had 32' wing spans, with 2,800 lb thrust
engines. These flew 28, 268, and 216 combat sorties respectively; of which 23 AQM-34Q drones were lost, AQM-34R machines were destroyed, and 6 AQM-34P models never made it home.
systems should be in widespread use following 2010, with the UAVs controlled and relaying data back over high-bandwidth data links in real time, linked to ground, air, sea, and space platforms. The trend had been emerging before the American war in Afghanistan
began in 2001, but was greatly accelerated by the use of UAVs in that conflict. The Predator RQ-1L UAV (General Atomics) was the first deployed UAV to the Balkans in 1995 Iraq in 1996 and was proved very effective in Operation Iraqi Freedom as well as Afghanistan.
s (MAVs)" that can be carried by an infantryman to man-portable UAVs that can be carried and launched like an infantry anti-aircraft missile.
On August 21, 1998, an Insitu Aerosonde
named Laima becomes the first UAV to cross the Atlantic Ocean, completing the flight in 26 hours.
Raytheon
suggested what would now be described as a UAV using beamed power, flying at an altitude of 15 kilometres (9.3 mi), as far back as 1959, and actually performed a proof-of-concept demonstration in 1964, with a transmitting antenna powering a helicopter on a 20 meter (65 foot) tether. The helicopter carried a rectifying antenna or "rectenna" array incorporating thousands of diodes to convert the microwave beam into useful electrical power.
The 1964 demonstration received a good deal of publicity, but nothing came of it, since enthusiasm for Earth satellites was very high and the rectenna system was heavy and inefficient. However, in the 1970s, NASA
became interested in beamed power for space applications, and, in 1982, published a design for a much lighter and cheaper rectenna system.
The NASA rectenna was made of a thin plastic film, with dipole antenna
s and receiving circuits embedded in its surface. In 1987, the Canadian Communications Research Center used such an improved rectenna to power a UAV with a wingspan of 5 meters (16 feet 5 inches) and a weight of 4.5 kilograms (9.9 pounds), as part of the "Stationary High Altitude Relay Platform (SHARP)" project. The SHARP UAV flew in a circle at 150 meters (490 feet) above a transmitting antenna. The UAV required 150 watts, and was able to obtain this level of power from the 6 to 12 kilowatt microwave beam.
. Solar photovoltaic (PV) cells, are not very efficient, and the amount of power provided by the Sun over a unit area is relatively modest. A solar powered aircraft must be lightly built to allow low-powered electric motors to get it off the ground. Such aircraft had been developed in the competition for the Kremer Prize for human-powered flight. In the early 1970s, Dr. Paul B. MacReady and his AeroVironment
company took a fresh look at the challenge, and came up with an unorthodox aircraft, the "Gossamer Condor
", to win the Kremer Prize on 23 August 1977.
In 1980, Dupont Corporation backed AeroVironment in an attempt to build a solar-powered piloted aircraft that could fly from Paris, France to England. The first prototype, the "Gossamer Penguin", was fragile and not very airworthy, but led to a better aircraft, the "Solar Challenger
". This success led in turn to AeroVironment concepts for a solar-powered UAV. A solar-powered UAV could in principle stay aloft indefinitely, as long as it had a power-storage system to keep it flying at night. The aerodynamics
of such an aircraft were challenging, since to reach high altitudes it had to be much lighter per unit area of wing surface than the Solar Challenger, and finding an energy storage system with the necessary high capacity and light weight was troublesome as well.
In 1983, AeroVironment investigated the concept, which was designated "High Altitude Solar (HALSOL)". The HALSOL prototype first flew in June 1983. HALSOL was a simple flying wing
, with a span of 30 meters (98 feet 5 inches) and a width of 2.44 meters (8 feet). The main wing spar was made of carbon fiber composite tubing, with ribs made of styrofoam and braced with spruce and Kevlar, and covered with thin Mylar plastic film. The wing was light but remarkably strong.
The wing was built in five segments of equal span. Two gondolas hung from the center segment, which carried payload, radio control and telemetry electronics, and other gear. The gondolas also provided the landing gear. Each gondola had dual baby-buggy wheels in front and a bicycle wheel in back for landing gear. HALSOL was propelled by eight small electric motors driving variable-pitch propeller
s. There were two motors on the center wing segment, two motors on each inner wing segment, and one motor on each outer wing segment. The aircraft's total weight was about 185 kilograms (410 pounds), with about a tenth of that being payload.
Nine HALSOL flights took place in the summer of 1983 at the isolated and secret Groom Lake base in Nevada. The flights were conducted using radio control and battery power, as the aircraft had not been fitted with solar cells. HALSOL's aerodynamics were validated, but the investigation led to the conclusion that neither PV cell nor energy storage technology were mature enough to make the idea practical for the time being. HALSOL was put into storage, and as it turned out, would be resurrected for greater glories later, as discussed later. For the moment, though, it remained a complete secret.
In the mid-1980s, not long after HALSOL went into mothballs, NASA awarded a contract to Lockheed to study a solar-powered HALE UAV named the "Solar High Altitude Powered Platform (Solar HAPP)" for missions such as crop monitoring, military reconnaissance, and communications relay. The Solar HAPP effort did not result in a prototype. Solar-powered HALE UAVs were a concept a bit ahead of their time, and early practical work on endurance UAVs focused on more conventional concepts.
Amber was designed by a team under Abraham Karem of Leading Systems. Amber was 4.6 meters (15 feet) long, had a wingspan of 8.54 meters (28 feet), weighed 335 kilograms (740 pounds), and was powered by a four-cylinder liquid-cooled piston engine providing 49 kW (65 hp), driving a pusher
propeller in the tail. The wing was mounted on a short pylon above the fuselage. The cruise missile version of Amber would discard the wing when it made its final dive on a target.
Amber had an inverted-vee tail, which would prove a popular configuration for a pusher UAV, since it protected the propeller during takeoff and landing. The airframe was made of plastic and composite materials, mostly Kevlar
, and the UAV had retractable stiltlike tricycle landing gear
to ensure propeller clearance. Amber had a flight endurance of 38 hours or more.
The initial contract specified three "Basic Amber" A-45 cruise missile
prototypes and three B-45 reconnaissance prototypes. Initial flights were in November 1986, with long-endurance flights the next year. Up to this time, Amber was a deep secret, but in 1987 details of the program were released.
Amber was only one of a number of different US UAV programs in planning at the time, and the US Congress became impatient with what was perceived as confusion and duplication of effort. Congress ordered a consolidation of UAV programs in 1987, freezing funding until June 1988, when the centralized Joint Program Office for UAV development, mentioned earlier, was established. Amber survived the consolidation of UAV efforts into JPO, resulting in the first "Amber I" reconnaissance UAV, which first flew in October 1989. Seven Amber Is were built, and were used in evaluations along with Basic Ambers through 1990. However, funding for reconnaissance assets was being cut, and in 1990 the Amber program was killed. LSI was faced with bankruptcy, and was bought out by General Atomics
in 1991, who would later develop the Amber into an operational platform, the MQ-1 Predatorhttp://spyflight.co.uk/Predator.htm
s to survey the U.S. border with Mexico. "In more than six months of service, the Predator's surveillance aided in the arrest of nearly 2,000 illegal immigrants and the seizure of four tons of marijuana, border officials say."
On March 20, 2007, an unmanned Border Protection agency UAV detected and led agents to six suspected aliens, including Mexican national Leopoldo Aparicio-Lopez, who had been wanted in Washington state on charges of third-degree rape of a child. Aparicio-Lopez was one of six suspected illegals in the group, and 395 pounds of marijuana were also seized during the arrest, federal officials said.
On May 18, 2006, the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) issued a certificate of authorization which will allow the M/RQ-1 and M/RQ-9 aircraft to be used within U.S. civilian airspace to search for survivors of disasters. Requests had been made in 2005 for the aircraft to be used in search and rescue operations following Hurricane Katrina
, but because there was no FAA authorization in place at the time, the assets were not used. The Predator's infrared
camera with digitally enhanced zoom has the capability of identifying the heat signature of a human body from an altitude of 10,000 feet, making the aircraft an ideal search and rescue tool.
According to a 2006 Wall Street Journal report, "After distinguished service in war zones in recent years, unmanned planes are hitting turbulence as they battle to join airliners and weekend pilots in America's civilian skies. Drones face regulatory, safety and technological hurdles – even though demand for them is burgeoning. Government agencies want them for disaster relief, border surveillance and wildfire fighting, while private companies hope to one day use drones for a wide variety of tasks, such as inspecting pipelines and spraying pesticides on farms."
UAV, with the stated goal of arming the aircraft for cross-border attacks into Israel.
Unmanned aerial vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...
s, known variously as UAVs, drones, and remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs), have been a feature of aviation for much of its history, though often overlooked. For the purposes of this article, and to distinguish UAVs from missile
Missile
Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...
s, a UAV is defined as being capable of controlled, sustained level flight and powered by a jet or reciprocating engine. The appeal of a military vehicle in which there is no risk of loss of life is quite strong, so the pace of development of UAVs has always reflected the pace of technology in general. Until recently, UAVs have tended to be small, so they depend on technology miniaturization even more than their manned siblings. In the 21st century, the technology has reached a point of sophistication that the UAV is now being given a greatly expanded role in war fighting.
The Austrian balloons
The earliest recorded use of a unmanned aerial vehicle for warfighting occurred on August 22, 1849, when the Austrians attacked the Italian city of VeniceVenice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
with unmanned balloons loaded with explosives. At least some of the balloons were launched from the Austrian ship Vulcano. Although some of the balloons worked, others were caught in a change of wind and blown back over Austrian lines. The Austrians had been developing this system for months: "The Presse, of Vienna, Austria, has the following: 'Venice is to be bombarded by balloons, as the lagunes prevent the approaching of artillery. Five balloons, each twenty-three feet in diameter, are in construction at Treviso. In a favorable wind the balloons will be launched and directed as near to Venice as possible, and on their being brought to vertical positions over the town, they will be fired by electro magnetism by means of a long isolated copper wire with a large galvanic battery placed on the shore. The bomb falls perpendicularly, and explodes on reaching the ground.'" Although balloons do not generally meet today's definition of a UAV, the concept was strong enough that once winged aircraft had been invented, the effort to fly them unmanned for military purposes was not far behind.
World War I
The first pilotless aircraft were built during and shortly after World War I. Leading the way, using A. M. LowArchibald Low
Archibald Montgomery Low was an English consulting engineer, research physicist and inventor, and author of more than 40 books....
's radio control techniques, was the "Aerial Target" of 1916
1916 in aviation
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1916:- Events :* Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft simulate night torpedo attacks for the first time against Japanese fleet units in Tateyama Bay during annual fleet maneuvers, although no torpedoes are dropped....
. If developed further it was to have been used against Zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...
s. Soon after, on September 12, the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane
Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane
The Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane was a project undertaken during World War I to develop an aerial torpedo, also called a flying bomb or pilotless aircraft, capable of carrying explosives to its target...
, otherwise known as the "flying bomb" made its first flight, demonstrating the concept of an unmanned aircraft. They were intended for use as "aerial torpedoes" an early version of today's cruise missile
Cruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and is propelled, usually by a jet engine, towards a land-based or sea-based target. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy...
s. Control was achieved using gyroscope
Gyroscope
A gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of angular momentum. In essence, a mechanical gyroscope is a spinning wheel or disk whose axle is free to take any orientation...
s developed by Elmer Sperry
Elmer Ambrose Sperry
Elmer Ambrose Sperry was a prolific inventor and entrepreneur, most famous as co-inventor, with Herman Anschütz-Kaempfe of the gyrocompass.Sperry was born at Cincinnatus, New York, United States of America...
of the Sperry Gyroscope Company.ndjsa
Later, in November 1917, the Automatic Airplane was flown for representatives of the US Army. This led the army to commission a project to build an "aerial torpedo", resulting in the Kettering Bug
Kettering Bug
-External links:* * *...
which first flew in 1918. While the Bug's revolutionary technology was successful, it was not in time to fight in the war, which ended before it could be fully developed and deployed.
Interwar period
After World War I, three Standard E-1Standard E-1
|-See also:-References:* Donald, David, ed. Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, p. 854, "Standard aircraft". Etobicoke, Ontario: Prospero Books, 1997.* -External links:*...
s were converted as drones. The Larynx
Larynx (unmanned aircraft)
Larynx was an early British pilotless aircraft, to be used as a guided anti-ship weapon.Started in September 1925, it was an early cruise missile guided by an autopilot....
was an early cruise missile in the form of a small monoplane aircraft that could be launched from a warship and flown under autopilot; it was tested between 1927 and 1929 by the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. The early successes of pilotless aircraft led to the development of radio control
Radio control
Radio control is the use of radio signals to remotely control a device. The term is used frequently to refer to the control of model vehicles from a hand-held radio transmitter...
led pilotless target aircraft in Britain and the US in the 1930s. In 1931, the British developed the Fairey "Queen" radio-controlled target from the Fairey IIIF
Fairey III
The Fairey Aviation Company Fairey III was a family of British reconnaissance biplanes that enjoyed a very long production and service history in both landplane and seaplane variants...
floatplane, building a small batch of three, and in 1935 followed up this experiment by producing larger numbers of another RC target, the "DH.82B Queen Bee", derived from the De Havilland Tiger Moth
De Havilland Tiger Moth
The de Havilland DH 82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and was operated by the Royal Air Force and others as a primary trainer. The Tiger Moth remained in service with the RAF until replaced by the de Havilland Chipmunk in 1952, when many of the surplus aircraft...
biplane trainer. Through some convoluted path, the name of "Queen Bee" is said to have led to the use of the term "drone" for pilotless aircraft, particularly when they are radio-controlled. However during this period the U.S. Navy, continuing work that reached back to 1917, was also experimenting with radio controlled aircraft. In 1936 the head of this research group used the term "drone" to describe radio controlled aerial targets.
World War II
Reginald Denny and the Radioplane
The first large-scale production, purpose-built drone was the product of Reginald DennyReginald Denny (actor)
Reginald Denny was an English stage, film, and television actor. He was once an amateur boxing champion of Great Britain.-Acting career:...
. He served with the British Royal Flying Corps
Royal Flying Corps
The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...
during World War I, and after the war, immigrated to the United States to seek his fortunes in Hollywood as an actor. Denny had made a name for himself as an actor, and between acting jobs, he pursued his interest in radio control
Radio control
Radio control is the use of radio signals to remotely control a device. The term is used frequently to refer to the control of model vehicles from a hand-held radio transmitter...
model aircraft in the 1930s. He and his business partners formed "Reginald Denny Industries" and opened a model plane shop in 1934 on Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard
-Revitalization:In recent years successful efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001...
known as "Reginald Denny Hobby Shops".
The shop evolved into the "Radioplane Company". Denny believed that low-cost RC aircraft would be very useful for training anti-aircraft gunners, and in 1935 he demonstrated a prototype target drone, the RP-1, to the US Army. Denny then bought a design from Walter Righter in 1938 and began marketing it to hobbyists as the "Dennymite", and demonstrated it to the Army as the RP-2, and after modifications as the RP-3 and RP-4 in 1939. In 1940, Denny and his partners won an Army
Army
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
contract for their radio controlled RP-4, which became the Radioplane OQ-2. They manufactured nearly fifteen thousand drones for the army during World War II.
It was at the Van Nuys Radioplane factory that in 1944 that Army photographer David Conover saw a young lady named Norma Jeane, and thought she had potential as a model. This "discovery" led to fame for Jeane, who soon changed her name to Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
.
Aerial torpedoes
The US Army Air Forces (USAAF) adopted the N2C-2 concept in 1939. Obsolescent aircraft were put into service as "A-series" anti-aircraft target drones. Since the "A" code would be also used for "Attack" aircraft, later "full-sized" targets would be given the "PQ" designation. USAAF acquired hundreds of Culver "PQ-8" target drones, which were radio-controlled versions of the tidy little Culver Cadet
Culver Cadet
-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft . London: Orbis Publishing, 1985.* Mondey, David. American Aircraft of World War II . London: Bounty Books, 2006. ISBN 978-0-7537-1461-4.* Mormillo, Frank B...
two-seat light civil aircraft, and thousands of the improved Culver "PQ-14" derivative of the PQ-8. The US also used RC aircraft, including modified B-17 and B-24 bombers in Operation Aphrodite
Operation Aphrodite
Aphrodite and Anvil were the World War II code names of United States Army Air Forces and United States Navy operations to use B-17 and PB4Y bombers as precision-guided munitions against bunkers such as those of Operation Crossbow....
in combat on a small scale during World War II as very large aerial torpedoes, though with no great success (and the loss of Navy Lieutenants Wilford John Willy and Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.
Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.
Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Jr. was an American bomber pilot during World War II. He was the eldest of nine children born to Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr., and Rose Elizabeth Kennedy....
during the testing phase.)
The Naval Aircraft Factory
Naval Aircraft Factory
The Naval Aircraft Factory was established by the United States Navy in 1918 at Philadelphia in order to assist in solving the problem of aircraft supply which faced the Navy Department upon the entry of the U.S. into World War I...
assault drone "Project Fox" installed an RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
television camera in the drone and a television screen in the TG-2 control aircraft in 1941. In April 1942 the assault drone successfully delivered a torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
attack on a destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
at a range of 20 miles from the TG-2 control aircraft. Another assault drone was successfully crashed into a target moving at eight knots. The Navy Bureau of Aeronautics
Bureau of Aeronautics
The Bureau of Aeronautics was the U.S. Navy's material-support organization for Naval Aviation from 1921 to 1959. The bureau had "cognizance" for the design, procurement, and support of Naval aircraft and related systems...
then proposed a television-assisted remote control assault drone program of 162 control planes and 1,000 assault drones. Disagreements arose within the Navy concerning the relative advantages of the proposed program for full scale combat implementation versus a small scale combat test with minimum aircraft resource expenditure which might reveal the concept to the enemy and allow development of countermeasures prior to full production. Assault drones remained an unproven concept in the minds of military planners through major allied advances of 1944. Utilization was limited to a 4-drone attack on a beached Japanese merchant ship in the Russell Islands
Russell Islands
The Russell Islands are two small islands, as well as several islets, of volcanic origin, in the Central Province of the Solomon Islands. They are located approximately 48 km northwest from Guadalcanal. The islands are partially covered in coconut plantations, and have a copra and oil factory at...
at the end of July followed by expenditure of 46 drones in the northern Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
. Two hits and two near-misses were scored on the stationary ship. Several of the later drones failed to reach their targets, but most were effective.
Pulsejets
Although small piston engines were the normal powerplant for target drones in this era, there was something of a fad for pulsejet propulsion as well, though it does not appear that the US military ever acquired any pulsejet-powered targets in more than modest numbers.McDonnell built a pulsejet-powered target, the T2D2-1 Katydid, later the KDD-1 and then KDH-1. It was an air-launched cigar-shaped machine with a straight mid-mounted wing, and a vee tail straddling the pulsejet engine. The Katydid was developed in mid-war and a small number were put into service with the US Navy.
After the war, the Navy obtained small numbers of another pulsejet-powered target, the KD2C Skeet series, built by Curtiss. It was another cigar-shaped machine, with the pulsejet in the fuselage and intake in the nose. It featured straight, low-mounted wings with tip tanks, and a triple-fin tail.
Target drone evolution
In the post-World War II period, Radioplane followed up the success of the OQ-2 target drone with another very successful series of piston-powered target drones, what would become known as the Basic Training Target (BTT) family (the BTT designation wasn't created until the 1980s, but is used here as a convenient way to resolve the tangle of designations), including the OQ-19/KD2R Quail, the MQM-33/MQM-36 Shelduck and the MQM-57 Falconer. The BTTs remained in service for the rest of the 20th century.The US military acquired a number of other drones similar in many ways to the Radioplane drones. The Globe company built a series of targets, beginning with the piston-powered "KDG Snipe" of 1946, which evolved through the "KD2G" and "KD5G" pulsejet-powered targets and the "KD3G" and "KD4G" piston-powered targets, to the "KD6G" series of piston-powered targets. The KD6G series appears to have been the only one of the Globe targets to be built in substantial numbers. It was similar in size and configuration to the BTT series, but had a twin-fin tail. It was redesignated "MQM-40" in the early 1960s, by which time it was generally out of service.
The use of drones as decoys goes back at least to the 1950s, with the Northrop Crossbow tested in such a role. The first operational decoy drone was the McDonnell Douglas
McDonnell Douglas
McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturer and defense contractor, producing a number of famous commercial and military aircraft. It formed from a merger of McDonnell Aircraft and Douglas Aircraft in 1967. McDonnell Douglas was based at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport...
"ADM-20 Quail
ADM-20 Quail
The McDonnell ADM-20 Quail was a subsonic, jet powered, air-launched decoy cruise missile built by McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. The Quail was designed to be launched by the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber and its original Air Force designation was GAM-72 .-Development:In 1955 the...
", which was carried by Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
B-52 Stratofortress
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber operated by the United States Air Force since the 1950s. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, who have continued to provide maintainence and upgrades to the aircraft in service...
bombers to help them penetrate defended airspace.
By the late 1950s combat aircraft were capable of Mach 2, and so faster targets had to be developed to keep pace. Northrop designed a turbojet-powered Mach 2 target in the late 1950s, originally designated the Q-4 but later given the designation of AQM-35
Northrop AQM-35
The AQM-35 was a supersonic target drone produced by Northrop.-Overview:The AQM-35 program began life in 1953 as the Model RP-61 supersonic target drone...
. In production form, it was a slender dart with wedge-shaped stubby wings, swept conventional tail assembly, and a GE J85 turbojet engine, like that used on the Northrop F-5 fighter.
Nuclear tests
In 1946, eight B-17 Flying Fortresses were transformed by American airmen into drones for collecting radioactive data. They were controlled at takeoff and landing from a transmitter on a jeep, and during flight by a transmitter on another B-17. They were used on Bikini AtollBikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll is an atoll, listed as a World Heritage Site, in the Micronesian Islands of the Pacific Ocean, part of Republic of the Marshall Islands....
(Operation Crossroads
Operation Crossroads
Operation Crossroads was a series of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. It was the first test of a nuclear weapon after the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945...
) to gather samples from inside the radioactive cloud. During test Baker, two drones were flown directly above the explosion; when the shock wave
Shock wave
A shock wave is a type of propagating disturbance. Like an ordinary wave, it carries energy and can propagate through a medium or in some cases in the absence of a material medium, through a field such as the electromagnetic field...
reached them, both gained height, and the lowest was damaged. The U.S. Navy conducted similar tests with Grumman F6F Hellcat drones. The B-17 drones were employed in a similar manner in Operation Sandstone
Operation Sandstone
Operation Sandstone was a series of nuclear weapon tests in 1948. It was the third series of American tests, following Crossroads and preceding Ranger...
in 1947, and in Operation Greenhouse
Operation Greenhouse
Operation Greenhouse was the fifth American nuclear test series, the second conducted in 1951 and the first to test principles that would lead to developing thermonuclear weapons . Conducted at the new Pacific Proving Ground, all of the devices were mounted in large steel towers, to simulate air...
in 1951. In this latter test, also several Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star jets were used, modified into drones by Sperry Corporation
Sperry Corporation
Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the twentieth century...
; however, the complex system resulted in a very high accident rate. One of the B-17 drones, tail number 44-83525, is currently under restoration at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base.
Reconnaissance platforms
In the late 1950s, along with the Falconer, the US Army acquired another reconnaissance drone, the Aerojet-General "MQM-58 Overseer". It had a similar configuration to the Falconer, but featured a vee tail and was about twice as heavy.The success of drones as targets led to their use for other missions. The well-proven Ryan Firebee
Ryan Firebee
The Ryan Firebee was a series of target drones or unmanned aerial vehicles developed by the Ryan Aeronautical Company beginning in 1951. It was one of the first jet-propelled drones, and one of the most widely-used target drones ever built....
was a good platform for such experiments
Experimental aircraft
An experimental aircraft is an aircraft that has not yet been fully proven in flight. Often, this implies that new aerospace technologies are being tested on the aircraft, though the label is more broad....
, and tests to evaluate it for the reconnaissance
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....
mission proved highly successful. A series of reconnaissance drones derived from the Firebee, the Ryan Model 147 Lightning Bug
Ryan Model 147 Lightning Bug
The Ryan Model 147 Lightning Bug was a drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle, developed from the earlier Ryan Firebee target drone series.-Ryan Model 136 Red Wagon and Lucy Lee:...
series, were used by the US to spy on North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
, Communist China, and North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
in the 1960s and early 1970s.
The Lightning Bugs were not the only long-range reconnaissance
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....
drones developed in the 1960s. The US developed other, more specialized reconnaissance drones: the Ryan "Model 154", the Ryan and Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
"Compass Cope
Compass Cope
-Notes:* This article contains material that originally came from the web article by Greg Goebel, which exists in the Public Domain.-External links:* *...
s", and the Lockheed "D-21"
Lockheed D-21/M-21
The Lockheed D-21 was an American Mach 3+ reconnaissance drone. The D-21 was initially designed to be launched from the back of its M-21 carrier aircraft, a variant of the Lockheed A-12 aircraft. Development began in October 1962...
, all of which were more or less cloaked in secrecy.
Secret projects
The USSRSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
also developed a number of reconnaissance drones, though since many programs the Soviets pursued were cloaked in secrecy, details of these aircraft are unclear and contradictory.
Vietnam War
By late 1959, the only spy plane available to the US was the U2U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
. Spy satellites were another year and half away, and the SR71 Blackbird was still on the drawing board. In such climate, concerns appeared about the negative publicity from the foreseen capture of US airmen on the communist territory. Pilots' fears were realized in May 1960, when U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the USSR. Not surprisingly, work intensified on an unmanned drone which would be capable of penetrating deep into enemy territory, and return with precise military intelligence. Within three months of the downing of the U2, the highly classified UAV (called RPV back then) program was born, under the code name of Red Wagon.
Just after the incident involving the US Navy destroyer USS Maddox
USS Maddox
USS Maddox may refer to:, christened in 1918, the ship was transferred to the Royal Navy, then Soviet Navy, and finally given back to the Royal Navy, christened in 1942 and sunk the next year by a German dive bomber, christened in 1944. After a short career in World War II and participation in the...
, and even before it escalated into presidential "Tonkin Gulf Resolution" and war with North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
, the USAF had issued an immediate order for the UAV units to deploy immediately for Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
on any available C130
C130
C130 or C-130 may refer to :* Bombardier CSeries-130, a 130-seat variant of the Bombardier CSeries aircraft family* C-130 Hercules, an aircraft* Medical Care and Sickness Benefits Convention, 1969 code...
s or C-133s. The first birds (drones) would be Ryan 147Bs piggy-backed on C-130s, after mission parachuted for recovery near Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
.
From August 1964, until their last combat flight on 30 April 1975 (the fall of Saigon), the USAF 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing would launch 3,435 Ryan reconnaissance drones over North Vietnam and it's surrounding areas, at a cost of about 554 UAVs lost to all causes during the war.
Post-war reflections
The usefulness of robot aircraft for reconnaissance had been demonstrated in Vietnam. At the same time, early steps were being taken to use them in active combat at sea and on land
Landform
A landform or physical feature in the earth sciences and geology sub-fields, comprises a geomorphological unit, and is largely defined by its surface form and location in the landscape, as part of the terrain, and as such, is typically an element of topography...
, but battlefield Unmanned aerial vehicle
Unmanned aerial vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...
s (UAV) would not come into their own until the 1980s.
During the early years, target drones were often launched from aircraft; or off a rail using solid-fuel rocket assisted takeoff (RATO
JATO
JATO is an acronym for jet-fuel assisted take off. It is a system for helping overloaded aircraft into the air by providing additional thrust in the form of small rockets....
) boosters; or hydraulic, electromagnetic
Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
, or pneumatic catapult
Catapult
A catapult is a device used to throw or hurl a projectile a great distance without the aid of explosive devices—particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. Although the catapult has been used since ancient times, it has proven to be one of the most effective mechanisms during...
. Very small target drones can be launched by an elastic bungee catapult. Few target drones have landing gear, and so they are generally recovered by parachute or, in some cases, by a skid landing. Beginning in April 1966, and lasting through the end of the war in 1975, the USAF successfully conducted approximately 2,655 Mid-Air Retrieval System (MARS) catches, out of 2,745 attempts, primarily using the Ryan 147J model drone.
The most combat sorties flown during the war were made by the Ryan 147SC (military designation AQM-34L) with 1,651 missions. About 211 AQM-34Ls were lost during the war. The highest mission bird was a 147SC, named "Tom Cat", it accomplished 68 combat missions in Vietnam, before failing to return on 25 September 1974. Tom Cat was followed by Budweiser (with 63 missions), Ryan's Daughter (52 missions), and Baby Duck (46 missions).
The largest UAVs in Vietnam were the 147T, TE, and TF (Military model
Military model
Military miniaturism describes a hobby that covers military themed miniaturism of many types including,* aircraft* figures, tin soldiers* ships* vehicles* weapons, emplacements or equipment* science fiction themes...
AQM-34P, 34Q, and 34R). These machines were 30' long, and had 32' wing spans, with 2,800 lb thrust
Thrust
Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's second and third laws. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction on that system....
engines. These flew 28, 268, and 216 combat sorties respectively; of which 23 AQM-34Q drones were lost, AQM-34R machines were destroyed, and 6 AQM-34P models never made it home.
Battlefield UAVs
After some fumbling, the US military now seems to be acquiring an effective fleet of battlefield UAVs. The US military is entering a new era in which UAVs will be critical to SIGINT payloads, or Electronic countermeasuresElectronic countermeasures
An electronic countermeasure is an electrical or electronic device designed to trick or deceive radar, sonar or other detection systems, like infrared or lasers. It may be used both offensively and defensively to deny targeting information to an enemy...
systems should be in widespread use following 2010, with the UAVs controlled and relaying data back over high-bandwidth data links in real time, linked to ground, air, sea, and space platforms. The trend had been emerging before the American war in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
began in 2001, but was greatly accelerated by the use of UAVs in that conflict. The Predator RQ-1L UAV (General Atomics) was the first deployed UAV to the Balkans in 1995 Iraq in 1996 and was proved very effective in Operation Iraqi Freedom as well as Afghanistan.
Micro UAVs
Another growth field in UAVs are miniature UAVs, ranging from "micro air vehicleMicro air vehicle
A micro air vehicle , or micro aerial vehicle , is a class of unmanned aerial vehicles that has a size restriction and may be autonomous. Modern craft can be as small as 15 centimetres...
s (MAVs)" that can be carried by an infantryman to man-portable UAVs that can be carried and launched like an infantry anti-aircraft missile.
Endurance UAVs
The idea of designing a UAV that could remain in the air for a long time has been around for decades, but only became an operational reality in the 21st century. Endurance UAVs for low-altitude and high-altitude operation, the latter sometimes referred to as "high-altitude long-endurance (HALE)" UAVs, are now in full service.On August 21, 1998, an Insitu Aerosonde
Insitu Aerosonde
The Aerosonde is a small unmanned aerial vehicle designed to collect weather data, including temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, and wind measurements, over oceans and remote areas. The Aerosonde was developed by Insitu, and is now manufactured by Aerosonde Ltd, which is a strategic...
named Laima becomes the first UAV to cross the Atlantic Ocean, completing the flight in 26 hours.
Beamed power UAV experiments
The idea of using UAVs as a cheaper alternative to satellites for atmospheric research, earth and weather observation, and particularly communications goes back at least to the late 1950s, with conceptual studies focused on UAVs with conventional propulsion, or new forms of propulsion using microwave beamed power or photovoltaic solar cells.Raytheon
Raytheon
Raytheon Company is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007...
suggested what would now be described as a UAV using beamed power, flying at an altitude of 15 kilometres (9.3 mi), as far back as 1959, and actually performed a proof-of-concept demonstration in 1964, with a transmitting antenna powering a helicopter on a 20 meter (65 foot) tether. The helicopter carried a rectifying antenna or "rectenna" array incorporating thousands of diodes to convert the microwave beam into useful electrical power.
The 1964 demonstration received a good deal of publicity, but nothing came of it, since enthusiasm for Earth satellites was very high and the rectenna system was heavy and inefficient. However, in the 1970s, NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
became interested in beamed power for space applications, and, in 1982, published a design for a much lighter and cheaper rectenna system.
The NASA rectenna was made of a thin plastic film, with dipole antenna
Dipole antenna
A dipole antenna is a radio antenna that can be made of a simple wire, with a center-fed driven element. It consists of two metal conductors of rod or wire, oriented parallel and collinear with each other , with a small space between them. The radio frequency voltage is applied to the antenna at...
s and receiving circuits embedded in its surface. In 1987, the Canadian Communications Research Center used such an improved rectenna to power a UAV with a wingspan of 5 meters (16 feet 5 inches) and a weight of 4.5 kilograms (9.9 pounds), as part of the "Stationary High Altitude Relay Platform (SHARP)" project. The SHARP UAV flew in a circle at 150 meters (490 feet) above a transmitting antenna. The UAV required 150 watts, and was able to obtain this level of power from the 6 to 12 kilowatt microwave beam.
Solar power
In the 1980s, new attention was focused on aircraft propelled by solar powerSolar power
Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...
. Solar photovoltaic (PV) cells, are not very efficient, and the amount of power provided by the Sun over a unit area is relatively modest. A solar powered aircraft must be lightly built to allow low-powered electric motors to get it off the ground. Such aircraft had been developed in the competition for the Kremer Prize for human-powered flight. In the early 1970s, Dr. Paul B. MacReady and his AeroVironment
AeroVironment
AeroVironment Inc. is a technology company in Monrovia, California, and Simi Valley, California, that is primarily involved in energy systems, electric vehicle systems, and unmanned aerial vehicles . Paul B. MacCready, Jr., a famous designer of human powered aircraft, founded the company in 1971...
company took a fresh look at the challenge, and came up with an unorthodox aircraft, the "Gossamer Condor
Gossamer Condor
-See also:-Further reading:*Morton Grosser. Gossamer Odyssey: The Triumph of Human-Powered Flight. MBI Press, 2004; Dover Publications, Inc., 1991; Houghton Mifflin Co., 1981*Morton Grosser. On Gossamer Wings. York Custom Graphics, 1982...
", to win the Kremer Prize on 23 August 1977.
In 1980, Dupont Corporation backed AeroVironment in an attempt to build a solar-powered piloted aircraft that could fly from Paris, France to England. The first prototype, the "Gossamer Penguin", was fragile and not very airworthy, but led to a better aircraft, the "Solar Challenger
Solar Challenger
|-See also:-External links:*...
". This success led in turn to AeroVironment concepts for a solar-powered UAV. A solar-powered UAV could in principle stay aloft indefinitely, as long as it had a power-storage system to keep it flying at night. The aerodynamics
Aerodynamics
Aerodynamics is a branch of dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a moving object. Aerodynamics is a subfield of fluid dynamics and gas dynamics, with much theory shared between them. Aerodynamics is often used synonymously with gas dynamics, with...
of such an aircraft were challenging, since to reach high altitudes it had to be much lighter per unit area of wing surface than the Solar Challenger, and finding an energy storage system with the necessary high capacity and light weight was troublesome as well.
In 1983, AeroVironment investigated the concept, which was designated "High Altitude Solar (HALSOL)". The HALSOL prototype first flew in June 1983. HALSOL was a simple flying wing
Flying wing
A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft which has no definite fuselage, with most of the crew, payload and equipment being housed inside the main wing structure....
, with a span of 30 meters (98 feet 5 inches) and a width of 2.44 meters (8 feet). The main wing spar was made of carbon fiber composite tubing, with ribs made of styrofoam and braced with spruce and Kevlar, and covered with thin Mylar plastic film. The wing was light but remarkably strong.
The wing was built in five segments of equal span. Two gondolas hung from the center segment, which carried payload, radio control and telemetry electronics, and other gear. The gondolas also provided the landing gear. Each gondola had dual baby-buggy wheels in front and a bicycle wheel in back for landing gear. HALSOL was propelled by eight small electric motors driving variable-pitch propeller
Propeller (aircraft)
Aircraft propellers or airscrews convert rotary motion from piston engines or turboprops to provide propulsive force. They may be fixed or variable pitch. Early aircraft propellers were carved by hand from solid or laminated wood with later propellers being constructed from metal...
s. There were two motors on the center wing segment, two motors on each inner wing segment, and one motor on each outer wing segment. The aircraft's total weight was about 185 kilograms (410 pounds), with about a tenth of that being payload.
Nine HALSOL flights took place in the summer of 1983 at the isolated and secret Groom Lake base in Nevada. The flights were conducted using radio control and battery power, as the aircraft had not been fitted with solar cells. HALSOL's aerodynamics were validated, but the investigation led to the conclusion that neither PV cell nor energy storage technology were mature enough to make the idea practical for the time being. HALSOL was put into storage, and as it turned out, would be resurrected for greater glories later, as discussed later. For the moment, though, it remained a complete secret.
In the mid-1980s, not long after HALSOL went into mothballs, NASA awarded a contract to Lockheed to study a solar-powered HALE UAV named the "Solar High Altitude Powered Platform (Solar HAPP)" for missions such as crop monitoring, military reconnaissance, and communications relay. The Solar HAPP effort did not result in a prototype. Solar-powered HALE UAVs were a concept a bit ahead of their time, and early practical work on endurance UAVs focused on more conventional concepts.
Amber
In 1984, DARPA issued a $40 million US contract to Leading Systems Incorporated (LSI) of Irvine, California, to build an endurance UAV named "Amber". Amber was to be used for photographic reconnaissance, ELINT missions, or as a cruise missile. The US Army, Navy, and Marine Corps were interested, and DARPA eventually passed control over to the Navy.Amber was designed by a team under Abraham Karem of Leading Systems. Amber was 4.6 meters (15 feet) long, had a wingspan of 8.54 meters (28 feet), weighed 335 kilograms (740 pounds), and was powered by a four-cylinder liquid-cooled piston engine providing 49 kW (65 hp), driving a pusher
Pusher configuration
In a craft with a pusher configuration the propeller are mounted behind their respective engine. According to Bill Gunston, a "pusher propeller" is one mounted behind engine so that drive shaft is in compression...
propeller in the tail. The wing was mounted on a short pylon above the fuselage. The cruise missile version of Amber would discard the wing when it made its final dive on a target.
Amber had an inverted-vee tail, which would prove a popular configuration for a pusher UAV, since it protected the propeller during takeoff and landing. The airframe was made of plastic and composite materials, mostly Kevlar
Kevlar
Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...
, and the UAV had retractable stiltlike tricycle landing gear
Landing Gear
Landing Gear is Devin the Dude's fifth studio album. It was released on October 7, 2008. It was his first studio album since signing with the label Razor & Tie. It features a high-profile guest appearance from Snoop Dogg. As of October 30, 2008, the album has sold 18,906 copies.-Track...
to ensure propeller clearance. Amber had a flight endurance of 38 hours or more.
The initial contract specified three "Basic Amber" A-45 cruise missile
Cruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and is propelled, usually by a jet engine, towards a land-based or sea-based target. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy...
prototypes and three B-45 reconnaissance prototypes. Initial flights were in November 1986, with long-endurance flights the next year. Up to this time, Amber was a deep secret, but in 1987 details of the program were released.
Amber was only one of a number of different US UAV programs in planning at the time, and the US Congress became impatient with what was perceived as confusion and duplication of effort. Congress ordered a consolidation of UAV programs in 1987, freezing funding until June 1988, when the centralized Joint Program Office for UAV development, mentioned earlier, was established. Amber survived the consolidation of UAV efforts into JPO, resulting in the first "Amber I" reconnaissance UAV, which first flew in October 1989. Seven Amber Is were built, and were used in evaluations along with Basic Ambers through 1990. However, funding for reconnaissance assets was being cut, and in 1990 the Amber program was killed. LSI was faced with bankruptcy, and was bought out by General Atomics
General Atomics
General Atomics is a nuclear physics and defense contractor headquartered in San Diego, California. General Atomics’ research into fission and fusion matured into competencies in related technologies, allowing the company to expand into other fields of research...
in 1991, who would later develop the Amber into an operational platform, the MQ-1 Predatorhttp://spyflight.co.uk/Predator.htm
U.S. domestic use
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has experimented with several models of UAVs, and has begun purchasing a fleet of unarmed MQ-9 ReaperMQ-9 Reaper
The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper is an unmanned aerial vehicle , capable of remote controlled or autonomous flight operations, developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems for use by the United States Air Force, the United States Navy, the CIA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Royal...
s to survey the U.S. border with Mexico. "In more than six months of service, the Predator's surveillance aided in the arrest of nearly 2,000 illegal immigrants and the seizure of four tons of marijuana, border officials say."
On March 20, 2007, an unmanned Border Protection agency UAV detected and led agents to six suspected aliens, including Mexican national Leopoldo Aparicio-Lopez, who had been wanted in Washington state on charges of third-degree rape of a child. Aparicio-Lopez was one of six suspected illegals in the group, and 395 pounds of marijuana were also seized during the arrest, federal officials said.
On May 18, 2006, the Federal Aviation Administration
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
(FAA) issued a certificate of authorization which will allow the M/RQ-1 and M/RQ-9 aircraft to be used within U.S. civilian airspace to search for survivors of disasters. Requests had been made in 2005 for the aircraft to be used in search and rescue operations following Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
, but because there was no FAA authorization in place at the time, the assets were not used. The Predator's infrared
Infrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
camera with digitally enhanced zoom has the capability of identifying the heat signature of a human body from an altitude of 10,000 feet, making the aircraft an ideal search and rescue tool.
According to a 2006 Wall Street Journal report, "After distinguished service in war zones in recent years, unmanned planes are hitting turbulence as they battle to join airliners and weekend pilots in America's civilian skies. Drones face regulatory, safety and technological hurdles – even though demand for them is burgeoning. Government agencies want them for disaster relief, border surveillance and wildfire fighting, while private companies hope to one day use drones for a wide variety of tasks, such as inspecting pipelines and spraying pesticides on farms."
Small-player use
At one time the cost of miniature technology limited the usage of UAVs to larger and better funded groups such as the US military, but due to falling costs of UAV technology, including vehicles and monitoring equipment in their simpler forms, it has become available to groups that before would not have had the funding to use it. Beginning in 2004, the Lebanese Shi'ite militia Hezbollah began operating the Mirsad-1Mirsad-1
-References:*...
UAV, with the stated goal of arming the aircraft for cross-border attacks into Israel.
Late US target drones
- Beech MQM-107 Streaker / CEI BQM-167 Skeeter
- US Army FQM-117 Targets / MQM-170A Outlaw / BATS
- Full-scale aircraft targets
See also
- US Battlefield UAVs
- International Battlefield UAVs
- List of unmanned aerial vehicles
- List of military aircraft of the United States
- Modern US endurance UAVsModern US endurance UAVs-RQ-3A Darkstar UAV / classified Darkstar follow-on:The Gnat 750 and Predator were the first in a series of "Tier UAVs" considered by the US Air Force. In the USAF plan, the Gnat 750 was known as "Tier 1", while the Predator was known as "Tier 2"...
- History of Unmanned Combat Air VehiclesHistory of Unmanned Combat Air VehiclesThe history of unmanned combat air vehicles is closely tied to the general history of unmanned aerial vehicles .-Cold War era 1945-1990:...
- Miniature UAVsMiniature UAVsA miniature UAV or Small UAV , is an unmanned aerial vehicle small enough to be man-portable.Miniature UAVs range from micro air vehicles that can be carried by an infantryman, to man-portable UAVs that can be carried and launched like an infantry anti-aircraft missile.-MAVs & mesicopters:The...