1.5 Research Assignment: History of UAS

One of the most interesting applications that I have found for UAS use, pre-1970’s, was the DH.82B Queen Bee in the United Kingdom. Between 1935 and 1947 over 370 of the plywood biplanes were flown from airfields in the UK and used for target practice for the Royal Navy. The wooden biplanes were remotely controlled, had wheels, and took off from grass airfields and were able to be returned and land at on the same surface. These large plywood planes were very versatile and could fly as high as 17,000 feet (Nova, 2015). They could also travel up to 300 miles away at a speed of 100 miles per hour (Nova, 2015). This was the first recordable use of a remote controlled aircraft being used as an asset to train military service members in a different branch (Royal Navy working in conjunction with the Royal Air Force). The controls of the aircraft were incredibly basic by today’s standards. The aircraft was designed using a standard body of a Tiger Moth but instead of having the cloth covered metal frame of a Tiger Moth it was designed and produced with spruce and plywood (de Havilland Aircraft Museum, 2015). The aircraft was powered by a single 130hp de Havilland Gipsy Major 1 engine. The rear cockpit of the biplane was enclosed and was fitted with a RAE radio control gear which included pneumatically operated servo units which were linked to the biplanes rudder and elevator controls (de Havilland Aircraft Museum, 2015).

            In contrast to this primitive design but following the same concept of using an aircraft for target practice Boeing announced in March that they had transformed an F-16 fighter jet into an unmanned aerial system that will be used as targets in Top Gun styled war games (Solon, 2015). The actual program was announced in 2013 but Boeing has only just started delivery of the systems to the US Air Force. The contrast between the Queen Bee and the F-16 UAS is staggering. The level of electronics, command and control, and linkage is night and day. The F-16 drone flies with the same capabilities as its manned counterpart. It is controlled from a ground station utilizing satellite up and downlinks. It has a very sophisticated lost-link algorithms programmed into its computers that enables the aircraft to fly a holding pattern until linkage is reestablished or it can be programmed to return to base and remotely land via ILS approach. The Queen Bee on the other hand if it lost link with its controller would end up crashing in a field or in the water depending on where it was being flown.

            The evolution of these systems, from a wooden biplane to an F-16, has enabled the Air Forces in both the UK and the US to be able to train not only their naval war fighters but also their Air Force dog fighters. I believe this is just the beginning of the applications of UAS systems being utilized for larger and more complex aircraft systems.

References

de Havilland Aircraft Museum. (2015, May 10). Retrieved from dehavillandmuseum.com: http://www.dehavillandmuseum.co.uk/aircraft/de-havilland-dh82b-queen-bee/

Nova. (2015, March 12). Retrieved from PBS.Org: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/spiesfly/uavs.html

Solon, O. (2015, March 25). Mirror Online. Retrieved from Mirror.co.uk: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/technology/boeings-pilotless-f-16-fighter-jets-5395920