Early and Current UAS Design
Early unmanned
aircraft systems designs (UAS) were mostly made of plywood and propeller
revolution counters without hardly any systems they have today. They were at
all times radio controlled by an operator and some versions had guidance
systems built to perform low level duties but not all early unmanned aircraft
systems were built so (The Future of the Sky, (n.d).
The current
contemporary designed unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAV) have many systems and
missions to accomplish. There are different UAV types such as target and decoy
that provide ground and aerial gunnery; camera reconnaissance which provides
images of what is present in a certain area; research and development and
terrain censoring.
The thing these
early designs and current designs hold is they both can operate without a human
in the cockpit. They are also the product of federal and military necessity. Some
differences they hold are the advancements of technology over the years. After
almost a century of playing with the idea of having something in the sky
without a human inside to gain surveillance and/or to drop bombs, the aircraft
systems inside UAV’s has progressed immensely.
UAS designs have increased our
knowledge by providing data of oceans, wild lands, wildfires, properties,
resources as well as military combat. If we take a look at the Predator, one
will see it is composed of a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) antenna, an
inertial navigation system, a satellite communications antenna, a video
cassette recorder, a APX-100 identification friend or foe transponder, a nose
camera assembly and much more (How the Predator UAV Works (n.d).
Some of the new
technologies that may influence these unmanned aircraft are the simple use of
cell phones. Cell phones may be the next best way to control one’s unmanned
aircraft system. One way to do this and to pass it on to someone else easily is
to have an account set up for that aircraft, then let the person you are
passing it over to have the password to the group account and once it passes
into his or her airspace, he or she can take control. It would kind of be like
a chat room, passing information and control within those group of people.
Exciting and scary at the same time.
References
The UAV - The Future Of The Sky.
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.theuav.com/
Valdes, R. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://science.howstuffworks.com/
