Aeronautics and Aerospace UAS

As the number of UAVs in civilian airspace continues to increase at a rather rapid rate, consideration for collision avoidance is critical not only with structures but with manned aircraft as well. The development of the collision avoidance technology plays an imperative role in the integration process of UAS in the NAS, which has yet to be successfully achieved. Researching the progression of the technology has proven to be as compounded as the actual development and implementation itself.                    Safety of the civil airspace is the challenge that UAS have with integration into the NAS. In 2014, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported approximately 25 near-midair collisions reported by ATC, private pilots, and commercial pilots in or around airports in the span of five months (Whitlock, 2014). The development of collision avoidance technology is imperative for NAS integration as well as ...

         This research document is a systems engineer process response to a precision crop-dusting unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) design issue. Mid-way through the build, the realization that the UAV would be overweight was noticed and three factors should be noted on this account: 1) two subsystems were off-the-shelf hardware which resulted in the overweight UAV 2) max payload has been established to the external customer so change in this area is restricted and 3) safety engineers prefer the fuel margin to remain as originally designed so change in this area is also restricted. Maintaining these factors and their restrictions during the problem solving process, the role of the engineer will be examined and represented by reflecting external customer interaction, development team communications, decision making on requirements, and the final decision of forward progress getting the UAV to the field. The document concludes with a summation of the process and pat...

For what appears as more modern technology, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in fact go back as far as 1849. The usefulness of the UAS design ranges from combat, decoy, and reconnaissance. However, no matter what the purpose was for a particular UAS, the interest level, rapid progression of design, and technology development has steadily increased. Interestingly enough, not all design changes and progression promote a faster, smaller, lighter weight unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as one would expect but more so the design based off of specific need by the consumer.               In the 1960s, the United States Air Force found the need for the development of a stealth reconnaissance UAV.   By making modifications to the Q-2C to reduce the radar signature the AQM-34 Ryan Firebee reconnaissance UAS was born. Originally in the 1950s, the Firebee held more of a combat role as an aerial gunnery target and then displaying its ve...