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Graduates deliver unmanned air vehicle
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18/07/2008
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A team, led by a number of recently qualified engineers and scientists from Qinetiq’s Cortex early career training scheme, has entered an innovative and highly versatile unmanned air vehicle (UAV) for a Ministry of Defence competition.
The MoD’s Grand Challenge is a competition designed to encourage younger engineers and scientists to champion the development of a system with a high degree of autonomy that can detect, identify, monitor and report a comprehensive range of military threats in an urban environment.
The Qinetiq entry can take off vertically – so the operator is not exposed, and then transition into conventional flight to provide range and operational duration. This design means that, in addition to being used as a ‘conventional’ UAV, it can go into hover mode or be landed to function as an unattended ground sensor. The sensor and imaging payload can be pre configured using a number of existing technologies to meet user requirements. It can remain on station and then take off again (unattended) and either be recovered back to base or continue to perform as a UAV or a ground sensor at another location.
Powered by twin electric motors, the airframe is extremely manoeuvrable, stable, efficient, robust and durable. Designed using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technology, it uses tried, tested and secure communications links. A low-cost solution, it is also light weight, easily scaleable from the current wingspan of about 1.5m, highly portable, and can be operated for long durations.
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Author
Ken Hurst
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