The paper begins with a summary of the performance characteristics of the most important classes of adaptive aerostructures which are relevant for UAVs and the materials which drive them. The paper describes several classes of UAVs that take advantage of these adaptive aerostructures technologies which are shown to be suitable for many classes of UAVs including: hard-launched, hovering, low speed, supersonic and convertible UAVs. The first class of UAVs presented shows off new Post-Buckled Precompressed (PBP) actuators which are enabling for hard-launched UAVs and enhancing convertible coleopters. These convertible UAVs (also known as 'hovering missiles') are capable of hovering for extended periods of time as a helicopter in gusty, windy, dusty, real tactical environments, then popping up, actively engaging a target or converting by transitioning via a 90 deg pitch-over maneuver and dashing out like a missile at several hundred knots. The paper shows photos (i.e. no computer simulations) of convertible coleopter launches from armored vehicles, full transitions to missile-mode flight, a battle-damage assessment exercise and a live fire sequence with 40 mm munitions. The second major class of adaptive materials are applicable to all classes of UAVs which operate in daylight. This new class of materials reduce the visual cross section of UAVs to below human thresholds. The paper concludes with a description of the Visual Signature Suppression (VSS) system which was employed on a 2m UAV. The VSS system was shown to suppress the visual cross section to below 1.8 cm2 which is the threshold for human aircraft observation. Accordingly, VSS equipped aircraft are said to disappear in mid flight.
Hypermaneuverability and visual cloaking: New adaptive aerostructures technologies for UAVs
2008
13 Seiten, 13 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 15 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Datenträger
Englisch
AIAA-2004-1886 Adaptive Aerostructures: Improving Militarily Enabled, High Performance Subscale UAVs
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