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ISSUE
48 - January 2009
Over 7,000 Total Ads Listed
1,000 NEW Ads Per Week
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| UAV’s OF THE
FUTURE |
The British author Edward Bulwer-Lytton
was famous enough in the 1800's to have been buried in Westminster
Abby. What’s that? Never heard of him? I’ll bet
you recognize one thing about him; his novel “Paul
Clifford” opens with the words “It was a dark
and stormy night”.
We’re interested in him here
because Bulwer-Lytton, often referred to as the ‘Father’ of
science fiction, in one of his novels described a machine
operating on it’s own. Years later a machine of this
concept was to be patented in the U.S. by none other than
Nikola Tesla.
| Tesla's " First Practical Telautomation" |
He called his invention ‘The
First Practical Telautomation” and “The world's
first wireless guided weapon” in 1897.
| The world's first wireless guided
weapon |
Needless to say the military immediately recognized the
value of this concept and development programs were opened
by governments around the world. Their work was intensified
by the outbreak of the First World War and successful UAV’s
were flying prior to its end. The U.S. Army, aided by Orville
Wright and C.H. Wills of the Ford Motor Company, flew its “Bug” in
Dayton Ohio and in Great Briton; the British Royal Aircraft
Establishment flew their “Ariel Target” at Farnborough.
It seems that had these programs been allowed to continue
that we might well be flying in ‘pilotless’ airliners
today. But, they were not. With the end of the war in 1918
came the end to military R&D. Not until war once again
loomed on the horizon were dollars to be available for every
manner of military research.
Today of course we are faced
with a bewildering array of ‘Unmanned Flying Vehicles’.
One Nano Air Vehicle, an insect-sized flying reconnaissance
machine by AeroVironment of California, is only 7cm long
and weighs just 10g and mimics an ordinary insect. The U.S.
military has spent $2.3 million for this hand-launched device
used for reconnaissance both indoor and outdoor.
At the other end of this spectrum are birds like the exotic
70 foot wide ‘DarkStar’ (the RQ-3A DarkStar program
seems to be on hold now or undergoing continued development
cloaked in secrecy)
Global Hawk, now in
world wide deployment by the U.S. for environmental monitoring,
boarder security and combat reconnaissance
and the deadly Predator, here shown with ‘HellFire’ missiles
has pin point air strike capability, both controlled AND,
autonomously!
These large complex UAV programs
are more accurately UAV ‘Systems’, as they often
encompass not only operators, but vast ‘systems’ of
support hardware and communication networks with operators
and decision makers on the other side of the globe.
Finally, the traditional roll of aircraft, transports,
bombers and fighters; all now being developed WITHOUT pilots.
The advantages are manifold. For combat aircraft, no imagination
is required to understand that with all human concerns removed
the vehicles can be simpler, far less costly and able to
avoid many crew requirement problems. Where human concerns
are still evident, as in airliners, the advantages are still
huge; much less expense in crew costs and scheduling, no
sick time, health insurance, retirement plans and training.
No human error accidents and again, a much simpler design.
So it is that as with the latest fighter developments, pilots
are being designed out of the equation. Now its Unmanned
Combat Aerial Vehicles, or UCAVs, and defense experts today
predict that the Joint Strike Fighter could be the last manned
fighter ever built. Imagine an extremely high performance
fighter, costing 75% less than a manned fighter, small, compact,
27 feet long with a 34-foot wingspan which can be disassembled,
stored for 10 years, reassembled in less than an hour, loaded
six to a C-17 freighter and dispatched to a war zone in hours.
It’s not hard to see the appeal of kicking
the pilot out of these things. Thankfully I came along
early enough to know what it’s like to fly an 86 and
a 104. Soon the opportunity for that experience will be gone
forever.
On the other hand, when we see science fiction pilots
like Col. Wilma Deering from the TV series Buck Rogers in
the 25th Century (Erin Gray), one can’t help but wonder
why it is that they are so intent on ridding the sky’s
of pilots.
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