[016] ~ Competitors

The following list is not in any particular order and a company may also be our potential partner.
See also our analysis UAVs in different countries and Key People.

Northrop Grumman
~ Northrop Grumman Corporation opened its new System Integration Laboratory for the U.S. Army's RQ-8B Fire Scout vertical takeoff and landing unmanned air vehicle (UAV).
~ The laboratory provides a place for the Fire Scout team to test and refine the UAV.
~ It is said to be a step toward meeting the Army's demand for a big-picture network it can use to better understand the battlefield environment
~ and simultaneously communicate among several of its assets.

Talon Light Attack and Surveillance Helicopter (L.A.S.H) concept
~ helicopter parts that are commercially available are being adapted into a very light weight but yet very durable airframe package
~ it will be able to run on everything from gasoline to diesel to bio diesel as well as kerosene and the JP-3, JP-4, JP-5, JP-6, JP-7, JP-8.
~ it will be able to carry out missions such as recon, light attack with onboard munitions, such as the hellfire attack missile
~ that is already in the military inventory, as well as dropping military supplies at a forward location with pinpoint accuracy
~ it will have a duration of approximately 6 to 8 hours flying time
~ it will be able to take off and land autonomously and carry out its mission with a click of a button on a computer keypad and mouse
~ targeting pod is located under the aircraft, with both high resolution cameras as well as the latest in Infra Red cameras as well as laser targeting equipment

BAE Systems
Unmanned Air Vehicles
~ The UAV Team is a multidisciplinary team
~ covering all aspects of technology and design associated with autonomous air systems.
~ This includes the ability to rapidly demonstrate new ideas,
~ utilising rapid prototyping facilities and processes.
~ It has strong links into the supporting supplier base
~ and into the authorities associated with qualification and clearance.
~ It also has the capability to design and test fly demonstrator systems
~ in order to demonstrate UAV capability and technology.
~ This activity is centred around a secure assembly and test facility,
~ enabling the team to be co-located around the product

~ The UAV team work very closely with all areas of New Business,
~ in particular with the FOAS team in developing and assessing the potential UAV solution for FOAS.
~ The team is also considering wider UAV application in the military markets,
~ including ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) application,
~ and in the civil domain.
~ A particular focus is the application of technologies to meet this potentially large market

Frost Sullivan UAV Business Raport (pdf)

NASA
~ NASA’s Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) programme
~ is set to finish with the duration flight of the Helios Prototype this summer,
~ but Dryden's work with Uninhabited Air Vehicles (UAVs) is far from complete.
~ Dryden is expected to begin an effort in fiscal year 2004 to complete .
~ Another key component of the Center's UAV work is to harness a cooperative venture
~ among a group of companies with interests in UAVs,
~ the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the U.S. Department of Defense
~ to set standards that will enable UAVs to fly in the same skies with piloted aircraft -
~ still one of the biggest stumbling blocks to opening the UAV frontier.
~ Successful development of a regenerative fuel cell would allow an aircraft to fly for weeks or months at a time and longer,
~ thereby reducing the costs of missions
~ that deliver a maximum return on investments per flight.
~ It also is one of the primary focuses of NASA's new UAV programme.
~ It is imperative that we develop the regenerative fuel cell.
~ The regenerative fuel cell can enable sustained flight for months.
~ Once we show that capability, people will appreciate solar electric for sub-orbital use,
~ said Rich Christiansen, Dryden's associate director for planning.
~ There are two reasons we need this capability.
~ Think about the way we conduct science.
~ This would provide the ability to stare at space from the sky or the ground for many days,
~ giving you continuous observations.
~ People want weather observations; they want to understand the total cycle of a hurricane by monitoring it 24/7.
~ It can provide records from the earliest creation to landfall," he said.
~ This technology enables a platform for science missions, telecommunications, disaster relief, remote sensing
~ and imaging and also has applications for the U.S. Department of Defense, Christiansen said.
~ And once the platform is readily available, people will find applications for its use that can't yet be envisioned.
~ "It's a chicken-and-the-egg argument. If you don't think it can be done, you won't ask for it.
~ If it is available, it will be used," he said.

~ The second element of the new effort in UAV support concerns assimilating UAVs in the national airspace.
~ NASA is tasked with the development of a process and a series of recommendations
~ that the FAA could use to certify UAVs to share airspace with commercial aircraft.
~ The UAV National Industry Team (UNITE) is a vine that grew from seeds planted during the 10-year, Dryden-led ERAST Programme.
~ The contractor group collectively advocates a solution to the certification process,
~ a grey area both for the FAA and for companies wishing to explore broad use of UAVs.
~ "One of the single biggest inhibitors to operations of UAVs for commercial,
~ civil and military use is the accessibility to the national airspace," Christiansen said.
~ "I think the case was clearly made and NASA Headquarters responded."
~ UNITE members - AeroVironment, Aurora Flight Systems, The Boeing Company, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin,
~ Northrop Grumman, and Scaled Composites
~ - were unified in their presentation.
~ Despite their competition for UAV business,
~ the members share a need for a technological breakthrough in the regenerative fuel cell area
~ and a common need to gain certification for vehicles that will be built or developed.
~ A coalition consisting of Dryden,
~ Ames Research Center,
~ the UNITE group of companies,
~ the Department of Defense and NASA Headquarters is working with FAA assistance on the national requirement
~ as part of a larger NASA plan,
~ called Access 5, calling for high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) aircraft to be certified within five years.

AeroVironment.com

Aurora Flight Scienses
~ Aurora's corporate, engineering and prototype fabrication offices are housed in two buildings
~ at the Manassas Regional Airport 30 miles west of Washington, DC.

~ Aurora's two buildings at the Harrison County/Clarksburg Airport
~ comprise more that 100,000 square feet of precision aerospace component production capability.
~ Building One is a 65,000 square foot facility used for fabrication and assembly of composites and metal aerostructures.
~ The building houses a machine shop, welding shop, multiple lay up rooms, a heat treat furnace,
~ paint booth, a 2,000 square foot clean room, wet lay up area, and a dedicated core processing area.
~ The facility produces components for several aircraft including the E2-C Hawkeye,
~ EA-6B Prowler, F-14 Tomcat and both the RQ-4A and RQ-4B versions of the Global Hawk.
~ The recently completed Building Two was designed as a showcase for lean aerospace manufacturing techniques and technologies.
~ The 40,000 square foot composites manufacturing facility contains two 10,000 square foot class 100,000 clean rooms
~ for composite lay-up and assembly,
~ two dual head Virtek laser ply location stations,
~ a 24 foot automated Gerber ply cutter,
~ two autoclaves,
~ a reconfigurable shop floor
~ and conference facilities.

~ In March 2005, Aurora opened its newest manufacturing facility at Mississippi State University's
~ Raspet Flight Research lab in Starkville, MS.
~ The company's offices will be located at the Raspet lab
~ until Aurora completes construction of a manufacturing plant at the nearby Golden Triangle Regional airport.
~ Aurora's Mississippi operation will fabricate composite aerostructures,
~ and complete assembly and integration of Hunter II UAVs
~ under a collaborative business agreement between Aurora Flight Sciences of Mississippi (AMS) and Northrop Grumman.

~ In 2006, AMS will add another aircraft to Aurora's product line when it begins building the high-performance Orion UAV.
Capabilities
~ UAV Design and Fabrication

~ Aircraft such as the HADD-2, Perseus A and the UCAV prototype Aurora built for Raytheon
~ are a testament to Aurora's innovative design team.
~ Whether they are designing airframes, avionics or propulsion systems, Aurora's engineers operate at the height of their craft.

~ Because of Aurora's diverse customer base,
~ the company maintains expertise in almost all major engineering packages including:

NASTRAN,

ProE,

Catia 4,

Catia 5,

Solidworks,

Ashlar Graphite 3D modelling,

UG.
~ Aurora's engineers specialize in design for low Reynolds number flight regimes.
~ They have extensive wind tunnel testing experience
~ and the ability to use wind tunnel pressure data or computational fluid dynamics software packages like

NS network simulator

VSAERO to model complex aerostructures.

~ Aurora also maintains robust in-house avionics, flight software, propulsion and systems engineering experience
Company:
~ The personal commitment Aurora's 300 highly specialized engineers,

craftsmen,

programmers,

managers

and technicians
~ have to these values give Aurora the strength and integrity to become a small business with the leadership, drive, expertise and capability of companies many times its size.
Science & Applications
~ Aurora's roots are in the science community.
~ For more than 15 years, the company has developed and supplied high-altitude UAVs for atmospheric research
~ and global change observations. In addition to terrestrial research, Aurora has its sights set on the stars.
~ MarsFlyer, a project to design and build a UAV that will fly on Mars, has made significant progress over the past three years.
~ In 2002, the High Altitude Drop Demonstrator (HADD1), a half-scale prototype of the MarsFlyer aircraft,
~ successfully deployed and flew above 100,000 feet.
~ This successful flight test in atmospheric conditions similar to those on Mars set the stage for the push for a Mars launch date.
~ Aurora is currently conducting risk reduction studies for a Martian flight and will test fly the HADD2,
~ a full-size MarsFlyer prototype in late 2005.
~ In addition to the MarsFlyer activities, the Sciences Applications team is also working on the next generation of high-altitude UAVs for earth
~ and atmospheric research missions. Like Aurora's Perseus A, Perseus B and Theseus,
~ these new aircraft will help researchers better understand our planet
~ by carrying more substantial payloads higher and keeping them on-station longer.
Aerostructures
~ In 1995, Aurora became a key member of the Global Hawk team
~ when it won the contract to build the V-tails for the RQ-4A Global Hawk.
~ Since then, Aurora has steadily increased the scope of its Global Hawk work,
~ which now includes almost one-third of each RQ-4A,
~ and all of the aircraft's composite components except those found in the wing and radome areas.
~ Aurora recently completed its contract for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase
~ of the RQ-4B Global Hawk. Under the EMD contract,
~ Aurora designed and built all of the tooling for the new, larger version of the Global Hawk.
~ In addition to its Global Hawk work, Aurora's Bridgeport,
~ WV facility fabricates a variety of metal and composite components for several aircraft,
~ including the E-8C Joint STARS, EA-6B Prowler, E-2C Hawkeye, and F-14 Tomcat
Tactical Systems
~ Aurora's Tactical Systems Group designs and builds a range of UAV systems
~ designed to meet the diverse needs of military, law enforcement and homeland security personnel.
~ From the backpackable GoldenEye-50 to the high-altitude Orion,
~ Aurora's UAVs provide tactical users affordably priced high performance.

DRS

Germany & United States collaboration
~ Northrop Grumman Corporation's Integrated Systems sector and EADS said last week at the Paris Air Show
~ that the U.S. Air Force and German Ministry of Defense (MoD) are moving ahead with a fall 2003 demonstration
~ of an EADS-designed electronic intelligence (ELINT) sensor onboard the Northrop Grumman-produced
~ RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
~ The demonstration is a significant step in the evaluation of an unmanned solution
~ for Germany's wide area surveillance requirements.
~ It could lead to a possible, future development of a German-owned and - operated Global Hawk derivative -- the Euro Hawk.
~ The air vehicle is expected to depart for Germany in October.
~ During its deployment, Global Hawk will fly up to four ELINT missions in precoordinated airspace in Germany above the North Sea.
~ The German MoD and the U.S. Air Force are conducting two initial flight tests this summer
~ at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to prepare for the demonstration.
~ The Air Force will conduct the first test, called a functional check out,
~ without the payload aboard to test air vehicle performance.
~ The second flight will test system operations with the ELINT payload.
~ The Air Force flew two successful test flights last year on Nov. 17 and 22
~ to confirm sensor compatibility with Global Hawk.
~ During the missions, the sensor was able, for the first time, to detect radar transmissions from emitters located
~ at the Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, Calif.
~ The transmissions were sent through a line-of-sight communications link to a temporary German ground support station
~ located at the Air Force flight test center at Edwards Air Force Base.
~ The sensor was manufactured by EADS, headquartered in Friedrichshafen/Ulm, Germany,
~ and integrated by Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems' Unmanned Systems unit in San Diego, Calif.
~ If developed, Euro Hawk would replace the aging Breguet Atlantic SIGINT aircraft,
~ a manned system that currently flies German signals intelligence missions,
~ according to Air Force, German Federal (MoD) and aerospace industry program officials.
~ Since Oct. 19, 2001, an international team of Air Force, German MoD, Northrop Grumman and EADS officials
~ has planned Global Hawk's deployment to demonstrate the interoperability of U.S.-German UAV systems.
~ The team effort followed formal approval of a project agreement by Willard H. Mitchell,
~ deputy undersecretary of the Air Force, and Rolf Schreiber,
~ deputy national armament director (retired), air equipment and technology, German MoD.
~ The agreement focuses on joint development and integration of a German electronic intelligence payload on Global Hawk,
~ exchange of flight certification information between the U.S. and Germany,
~ and deployment of the UAV to Germany to prove the conceptual feasibility of its signals intelligence payload.

Small UAV in Kuwait
Raven
~ KUWAIT -- The Raven could very well be “the little engine that could” of the unmanned aerial vehicle fleet.
~ Weighing in at four and a half pounds with a five-foot wingspan and stretching a mere 38 inches in length,
~ the Raven is by far one of the smallest vehicles in the Army,
~ but its aerial reconnaissance value has quickly earned the respect of battalion commanders in Iraq
~ and has filled a niche at the battalion level when larger UAVs are unavailable.

~ The system is developing the confidence of the leadership,” said Maj. Chris Brown,
~ Kuwait Raven Equipping Detachment officer in charge.
~ “We had one commander's team find an IED (improvised explosive device) on its first mission,
~ and the commander has been sold ever since.”

~ The Raven flies various missions that aid in force protection.
~ It is flown to search for IEDs, provide reconnaissance for patrols and flies the perimeter of camps.
~ “When a company or battalion can't get the larger UAV, such as the Hunter, Shadow and Inet, ...
~ the Raven works very well,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Steve Schisler, Raven integration and customer service officer.
~ Schisler explained that the Raven is best employed in conjunction with ground forces.
~ "If you have guys doing a mounted or dismounted patrol in a city or a small town,
~ you can have the Raven flying overhead providing far-sight security.”

~ He continued, “The patrol can't see past the building 100 meters in front of them, but the Raven can.
~ The Raven can see beyond the building … to where two terrorists with their AK-47s are running to engage the patrol.
~ The Soldiers can then respond to the intelligence rather than respond to an attack."
~ The UAV is small and can be transported easily in three small cases that fit into a ruck sack.
~ The crew can bring it with them and operate wherever the patrol goes.

~ The Raven three different cameras that attach to the nose of the plane,
~ an electrical optical camera that sends data either through a nose camera or a side camera,
~ an infrared camera in the nose, and a side-mounted IR camera.
~
~ The IR technology is still too big to fit into the nose section of the plane, Brown said.
~ The camera does not have a zoom and is unable to lock on a target but provides enough resolution to show someone carrying a weapon.
~ "You have to select what camera is going to be best for the mission at hand,” Brown said.
~ For example, if you're flying over a city and there are shadows, the IR camera can penetrate the shadows and show the hotspots.”
~ He added, "The average Apache pilot would say that the IR on this is better than the Apache, and I would have to agree."

~ One of the advantages of the Raven is that it provides real time data that can be recorded to a video camera.
~ The Raven has about 45 to 60 minutes of flight time on a battery.
~ The kit comes with spare batteries and a charger that plugs into a Humvee so they can land it,
~ pop in a spare battery and get it back in the air.

~ Schisler’s role with the Raven had him travel throughout Iraq to provide customer service to units who flew the UAV.
~ The longest continuous operation Schisler recalled was for more than 10 hours,
~ where they would land the plane, change batteries and launch the aircraft again.
~ Where large UAVs need space to taxi and land,
~ the Raven is launched by hand and requires one pilot and a second person to monitor the incoming information.
~ Brnow said, “The Raven is not MOS specific, but rather the question is who can the unit use?”
~ One example Brown gave was the food service specialists in Iraq
~ have a smaller role because the food services are contracted to Kellog, Brown and Root.
~ "One of the best pilots in the 1st Cav. is a cook, but that doesn't mean we don't have ... scouts operating the Raven,” he said.
~ “Some of these kids have been raised with Playstation in their hands
~ and are better able to handle watching a screen and controlling the aircraft.”
~
~ A single Raven costs about $35,000 and the total system costs $250,000
~ but that is a cheap OH-58C, Brown said.

~ "With this system, we replace a helicopter and crew that's down range
~ and put a system at risk rather than people,” he added

Russia
~ Russia is ready to market a new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
~ that can be launched by a Smerch multiple launch rocket system (MLRS)
~ to provide targeting data from a distance of 90 kilometers in just four minutes.

~ The Splav State Research and Production Association, Tula, which makes the Smerch,
~ developed a UAV that can be fired within a 300mm rocket,
~ Sergei Malevsky, deputy head of the group’s external economic relations department, said April 14.

~ The 42-kilogram UAV is fitted within an 800-kilogram rocket
~ and can fly over the target area for 30 minutes at an altitude of between 200 and 600 meters.
~ The UAV carries a TV camera and sensors that transmit imagery and coordinates with the MLRS,
~ which in turn identifies a more precise target location.
~ Trials of the UAV have shown that it reduces by 25 percent the number of times rockets need to be fired to hit a target.
~ “It is a precedent,” Malevsky said. “You can also have three in one: reconnaissance, strike and control.”
~ Malevsky said the UAV has been in development for five years.
~ Splav would not divulge development cost information.
~ “So far, we have been investing our own money in the development,” Malevsky said.
~ “We initiated its development as we saw a lot of potential for this product.”
~ Malevsky said, however, that so far there have been no domestic or export orders
~ and it was not clear when the system would go into mass production.
~ Malevsky lamented that due to financial constraints, it will be hard to market the product to the Russian armed forces.
~ “The most likely clients would be the countries that already operate Smerch,” said Marat Kenzhetayev,
~ an expert with the Center for Arms Control here.
~ In service since 1987, Smerch was delivered to Algeria in 1999 and Kuwait in the mid-1990s.
~ “It will allow for better mobility … than a regular UAV that takes time to be mounted on a special launcher,” Kenzhetayev said.
~ Apart from Kuwait, Algeria and Russia, Kenzhetayev said, India could be interested in using the UAV to monitor Kashmir.
~ “It will be perfect for anti-terrorist combat,” Kenzhetayev said. •

NAIST Unmanned Aerial Vehicle project
~ From their web page: images
Project sponsors and partners:

(1) 3W Modellmotoren,Germany
~ Provided detailed CAD modeling data for the engines,
~ which was needed to produce an accurate model for determaining flight characteristics of the XB-2 aircraft
From their web page: photo gallery

(2) Japan Aerospace
~ Even though the conferance officials had no official rules for Universities.
~ They supported project for display by giving us a 50% discount.
From their web page: exhibitors

(3) Cactus Aviation,Arizona
~ The engines in the XB-2 come Cactus Aviation of Arizona.
~ Cactus Aviation has provided in addition to large discounts,
~ much needed advise to help get aircraft designed and built using these types of 3W engines
From their web page: photo gallery

(4) CADD VAN DU
~ Provided more than 600,000 US dollars in research capital,
~ free cad work using Rhino and Solidworks,
~ and lots of technical expertise and avisory.
~ Is currently in discussions to license the XB-2 aircraft and Vision technology for production in the United States and abroad.
From their web page: services

(5) Carbon Composited Hawaiji
~ The first carbon sheets in the previous part of the project came from CARB COM of Hawaii.
~ They have provided in the second half of the project with even more discounts than the first half
~ and they continue to support requests

(6) Compu Foil Inc,USA
~ Without the COMPUFOIL software project would have been dead on arrival.
~ Eric Sanders the author of compufoil software has tailored much of his software
~ and re-written a lot of it to support the needs of this project.
~ He has provided a backbone tool needed to design a successful aircraft.
From their web page: 3D Rendering,for example wings

(7) Dow Chemical Corporation
~ Dow Chemical has been an ernest supporter of the project now for four years and
~ it continues to provide advisory assistance and various foam materials for the project

(8) HYTEK Automation,Canada
~ When you have a project in which the development times is critical
~ and you are using LabVIEW and find that they don't support USB or DV formats. This is the place to go

(9)Miyoshi-Corporation
~ Provides with educational discounts for Resins, Vacuum bags and other composite related materials

(10)National Instruments
~ Provides their full suite of LabVIEW tools and vision hardware for the project.
~ There new sponsorship brings about 200,000 US dollars worth of equipment to projects VISION technology using NI VISION.
~ It has also cut down on development time by 6 months
From their web page: Global Hawk UAV landing gear stroke measurement

(11)OK Model, Japan
~ The OK Model Company has been with the project since the beginning
~ and is continuing to provide technical advisory support for aircraft construction, aerodynamic analysis,
~ composite construction expertise and aircraft hardware, control and logistics support
From their web page: catalogue,for example Mustang

(12)Omni Compsites, USA
~ Omni Composites is an agent for Auromat Composites - Columbia in Los Angeles.
~ They have paid 50% of the bill for the auromat materials.

(13)PM Mode
~ The PM Mode Company of New Zealand has developed a new type of advanced high speed transmission and reception system.
~ Project is the first group in the world to flight test this Very High Baud Rate system for "real-time" vision transmission
~ and reception. The whole unit is less than 400g

(14)RCAT Systems Inc, USA
~ The back-up telemetry system and telemetry calibration system comes from RCAT Systems.
~ They provided a large discount and reworked much of their code for FREE to handle special requirements
~ for dual engine usage and VTOL telemetry. RCAT Systems hardware and software continues to be an important element of the project
From their web page: telemetry unit
~ the package includes the RCATS DCU, transmitter, receiver, rpm sensor & magnet, manual on/off slide switch,
~ electronic switch, 12” precision stainless steel pitot/static probe, hookup tubing,
~ t fitting & 2 quick disconnects, 2 standard thermocouples, receiver voltage measurement adapter, mounting velcro,
~ virtual instrument panel software,
~ RCATS GPS Datalogger available as an add-on to the RCATS telemetry sys RCATS GPS Datalogger

(15)RUN-O, Japan
~ Provided more than 300,000 US dollars in research capital,
~ assisted in locating work space outside of NAIST for the dirty construction work
~ and paid for 100% of the Aerospace Show in October , 2004.
~ The company plans to license the XB-2 aircraft and Vision technology from NAIST to commercialize it in the future in the Japanese market.
From their web page: maneji

(16)GSC Systems
~ Provides variable pitch propellors at an educational discount.
~ Project is continuing to work with Ultralight Propellors to further develop specialize propellors for the XB-2 aircraft
From their web page: propels


Other competing or complementing companies and products:

Rotomotion

L3 Communications
~ L3 built the communications systems for the Global Hawk and Predator pilotless aircraft.

Linux Links

A UAV project

Linux powers airborne pots
~ The University of Essex's UltraSwarm project

Applied data Systems


New platforms:
~ Dassault Aviation and drones
~ UCAV
~ Dassault Neuron
~ Dassault, EADS Team Up To Tackle World Market
~ Saab & future UAV products


UAVs, sensors, antennas, hardware, software:

Cyber Defense Systems; micro UAV

Proxity

UAV Flight ~ flight control system products, USA

Cloudcap Technology ~ software and hardware solutions for the UAV market, Oregon

uavnas.aero High Altitude Long Endurance UAV Project

Aerosonde

Arcturus ~ design, development, manufacturing of small UAV systems

MicroPilot ~ UAV autopilot Weight=28g,Inc GPS,Length=10cm,width=4cm

U.S. Marines ~UAV demo, at the Webster Field Annex of Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Md

L-3 BAI Aerosystems ~ Pan-Tilt-Zoom Camera with Laser Rangefinder...

The Isitu Group ~ UAVs launched by catapult /Bingen, Washington

Tactical Aerospace Group ~ VTOL UAV Helicopters

Stara ~ miniaturized guided parafoil sensor delivery systems

Chelton Microwave ~ Embedded UAV Antennas

Battlespace Inc, USA ~ UAV operational,maintenance training, mission analysis, concept of operations development

Znose ~ Sensor nose; realtime analysis of any chemical, vapor, or toxin in less than ten seconds with part-per-trillion sensitivity.


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