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Hypermanoeuvrability and visual cloaking: new adaptive aerostructures technologies for UAVs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2016

R. Barrett
R. Barrett*
Affiliation:
[email protected], Adaptive Aerostructures Laboratory, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
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Abstract

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 the various kinds of adaptive aerostructures technologies. These technologies are shown to be suitable for very small and even hard-launched UAVs, hovering, high speed, low speed and convertible UAVs (i.e. UAVs that can transition between helicopter and aircraft/missile flight modes). The first class of UAVs presented highlights newly invented post-buckled precompressed (PBP) actuators which are particularly well suited to enhancing convertible coleopters or ‘ultra-high performance UAVs.’ These UAVs are capable of hovering for extended periods of time as a helicopter in gusty, windy, dusty, real tactical environments, then popping up, converting and dashing out like a missile at several hundred knots. The paper shows photos (i.e. no computer simulations) of convertible coleopter launches from armoured vehicles, a battle-damage assessment exercise and a live fire sequence with 40mm munitions. 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 1·8cm2 which is the threshold for human aircraft observation. Accordingly, VSS equipped aircraft are said to ‘disappear’ in mid flight.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 114 , Issue 1156 , June 2010 , pp. 391 - 398
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 2010 

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