UAS VISION
an independent online news service for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems world
IAI's Fibre Optic Gyro Navigation System
IAI presented a new airborne navigation system called TNF-Tamam Navigation FOG (Fibre Optic Gyro) at Aero India. TNF is a lightweight, airborne navigation and attitude heading reference system (AHRS) for use in UAS, target drones, small aircraft, and helicopters.
Hirth 3503 EFI
Hirth Motors (Goebler-Hirthmotoren KG) has been working with Saab on the propulsion system for Saab’s Skeldar V-200. The power plant is Hirth’s 3503 EFI engine – a 625cc water cooled in-line 2-stroke engine with electronic fuel injection (EFI) producing 60 hp (44 kW).
U.S. Navy UAS experts are asking engineers at the Northrop Grumman Corp. Aerospace Systems segment in Bethpage, N.Y., to develop common UAS ground control stations to fly the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk and the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) high-altitude, high-endurance surveillance UAS. BAMS and Global Hawk are based on the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 airframe.
Panama’s Security Minister Jose Raul Mulino, announced recently that the country will spend at least $16 million dollars on four UAS to monitor drug trafficking. With operating costs, the total bill could reach $93 million in the first year.
A military rocket range on the island of South Uist in the Scottish Hebrides, could be used for testing civilian UAS. Highlands and island Enterprise, the Scottish Government’s economic and community development agency for the region , commissioned a study which found that there is a growing market for UAS. Continue reading
An MQ-1 Predator crashed in south Yemen on Tuesday. It came down in Jahayn village near Loder, in Yemen’s Abyan province where Al-Qaeda has a strong presence. It was found by local residents who called in police, who then collected the wreckage. But as they headed to a police station about 30 kilometers (18 miles) away, Al-Qaeda gunmen in cars intercepted the police and hijacked the wreckage.
Elbit Systems announced that it has successfully performed a series of joint flight missions of its Hermes® 450 and Hermes® 900 Unmanned Aircraft Systems. The two different UAS were controlled and operated from the same universal ground control station (UGCS), transmitting the gathered imagery, ELINT and COMINT to their station operators, while using different communications systems. To view video, click here.
Pratt & Whitney’s F100-PW-220U engine and exhaust system powered the first flight of the Navy / Northrop Grumman X-47B flight test aircraft for the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) programme.