Prototype UAV tested at Northern Edge

[darenm]

Check out link for full story and high res pictures.

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123098595

5/14/2008 - EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska (AFPN) -- Thanks to technology advances in small, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, servicemembers on the ground may be able to get an inside track on what lies ahead, literally.

http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/web/080507-M-3601S-117.jpg

http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/web/080507-M-3601S-111.jpg

[macboffin]

Darenm, this is hardly news. Such man-portable local area surveillance UAVs have been around for decades.Probably the best known is the Aerovironment "Pointer" hand launched mini UAV, but there are dozens more.
One of my companies has produced and marketed several similar types, pics attached. This is a typical "News" release by a "general purpose technical reporter" without specialised knowlege in the field, or probably time or inclination to research the field first to see if this is genuinely "News" or just a publicity seeking "press release" by the production agency. Sort of thing that drives me mad, stories about folks who re-invent wheels , or copy old designs and claim them to be original work. Especially when those design are my own and patented! Yes, that has happened.

[clolson]

Darenm, this is hardly news. Such man-portable local area surveillance UAVs have been around for decades.Probably the best known is the Aerovironment "Pointer" hand launched mini UAV, but there are dozens more.
One of my companies has produced and marketed several similar types, pics attached. This is a typical "News" release by a "general purpose technical reporter" without specialised knowlege in the field, or probably time or inclination to research the field first to see if this is genuinely "News" or just a publicity seeking "press release" by the production agency. Sort of thing that drives me mad, stories about folks who re-invent wheels , or copy old designs and claim them to be original work. Especially when those design are my own and patented! Yes, that has happened.

I had the pleasure of visiting the USAF museum in Dayton OH a little over a year ago, and they had a display of all kinds of designs that had been tried in the early days of aviation. We were in the brainstorm phase of our UAS design at that point and literally, every serious and goofball idea we had come up with over the past couple months was already represented in that display, and probably built and tested by the mid 1930's ... go back and see that the first flight sim was put together around 1910, just about any of our technology and designs today trace back probably a lot further than most of us would guess.

Once in a while a really unique new idea comes along, but not too often. For our UAS project we ended up with ... tada ... a big flying wing. And then we had some tip stall issues, but come to find out that high performance slope soarers have long history of tip stall issues and all those competition guys know all kinds of tricks to improve the handling qualities with minimal impact to overall performance. Was reading through one of the threads, came across a 30 second fix ... tried it, and wow, I now really *love* how well our wing flies, and how gentle it is at slow speeds.

I'm just rambling, but I think for most people, the best we can do is to stand on the shoulders of those that have gone before us and add our little part or improve our little piece or put a slightly new wrinkle or combination on what's been done before.

[macboffin]

Herewwith some pics. The "Pointer" dates from 1986. The Swifteye from 2000.

[Jack Crossfire]

Well, the autonomous part probably didn't exist until GPS. Then making the autonomous part didn't become cheap enough for infantry use until after 2000. That means it may actually reach Silicon Valley by 2100.

[Magician]

Thanks for posting this darenm. Now I know why I couldn't get ahold of the crew at Arcturus earlier this month!

And Mac, you have to read the article closely to see the new development that was being demonstrated. Of course small, portable UAVs have been around a while but the fact that AFRL has tested an autotracking capability that allows the gimbal and the UAV to work together autonomously to follow a moving target is pretty new. A few folks have demonstated it to various degrees but the AFRL has every right to issue a press release saying what they had successfully demonstrated. The vehicles you showed do not have fully gimbaled cameras with autotracking of a moving target capability so they do not compare with the full information presented in the article.

I appreciate your contributions to the industry but don't let your previous dealings cloud your appreciation for some of the new advances that are happening.

Regards,

Chris