Short-range, unmanned air vehicle system development at Cranfield

You are here: Homepage > Search

Short-range, unmanned air vehicle system development at Cranfield

Jones, Robert / Dyer, David / Thomasson, Peter

In the mid-1990s Cranfield began work on a programme to develop a short-range, unmanned air vehicle system for surveillance use. The basic aim of the work was to prove the technologies to provide real time reconnaissance imagery of ground targets to operators having the minimum of skills in air vehicle operations. Cranfield was able to bring a wide range of proven skills to the programme in the areas of airframe and control system design, mathematical modelling and real time simulation plus system integration and flight trials. All of these contributed to the work described here. The programme led to the demonstration of a complete “Observer” system, including the new Cranfield A3 air vehicle, which met the requirements for a robust, simple to operate system for providing the imagery information required without the need to master the complexities of the technologies deployed to provide it.