History of UAS
Benjamin Huff
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
History of UAS
Back in the 1950’s there was an early
design of a UAS called the MQM-57 Falconer which was used for surveillance and
was the first reconnaissance drone used by the US Army. It was launched off the
ground by two rockets and then an operator controlled it by remote
control. Compared to today’s UAS the
Falconer was very rudimental in the way it was controlled by radio signals and
radar tracking and its surveillance was done by film cameras and upon return it
just simply popped a parachute to return to the ground. The aircraft weighed 430 pounds and could
obtain top speeds of 184 mph. It was
driven by a piston engine that allowed the aircraft to climb to 15,000 feet and
remain airborne for 40 minutes (United States
Air Force, 2013).
Today’s Reaper makes the Falconer look
very archaic yet when you break in down fundamentally they are both based on
the same thing. While the Falconer was
created for the Army the Reaper was produced for the Air Force and went into
service in 2007. While the both the
Falconer and Reaper main mission is surveillance, the Reaper has a secondary
mission to use hellfire missiles to take down enemy takes. The Reaper’s
hellfire missiles are extremely accurate and can kill a target without warning
and that it is why it lives up to its deadly name. Another aspect that is different between
these two models is that the Reaper Takes off and lands on runways whereas, the
Falconer launches from a stand then is parachuted home. The Reaper does need a clear line-of-sight
communication link for take-off and landing.
This process is practically no different than the radio signals used by
the Falconer. However, once over the
horizon, the Reaper uses satellite communication to relay information to and
from its subsystems and sensors. The Reaper cruises at 230 miles per hour and
has a maximum altitude of 50,000 feet, and can remain airborne for 24 hours
(USAF, 2010).
The future evolution of UAS will depend on the military’s mission
requirements but also the demands of the private sector or even hobbits. As technology advances and it allow hardware
to be micro-sized it will allow the military will crave smaller versions of the
same aircraft to ease transportation complications of larger aircraft. Additionally, smaller/lighter components open
the possibilities of greater payloads or increased weapon systems for the same
size aircraft. As with anything cost is
always a driving factor and a key factor to the evolution of any future UAS (Dalamagkidis 2012).
Reference
Dalamagkidis, K., Valavanis, K., & Piegl, L. (2012). On integrating unmanned aircraft systems into
the national airspace system: issues, challenges, operational restrictions,
certification, and recommendations.
Dordrecht, NLD: Springer.
United States Air
Force. (2010). MQ-9 Factsheet. Retrieved from: http://www.af.mil/AboutUs/FactSheets/Display/tabid/224/Article/104470/mq-9-reaper.aspxBrown,
S. F., & Goodall, J. C. (1994, October). D-21: the supersonic spy drone.
Popular Science, 245(4), 58+. Retrieved from: http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=embry&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA16101161&sid=summon&asid=efc7e5768aa88bf813b29f2a6724ecae
United States Air Force.
(2013). Radioplane/Northrop
MQM-57 Falconer Factsheet. Retrieved
from: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=7684
