23rd Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, 8-13 September, 2002, Toronto, Canada
Paper ICAS 2002-1.3.1

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES & APPROACHES FOR NEXT GENERATION UAVS

S. Tsach, D. Penn, A. Levy
Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd., Israel

Keywords: uav, technologies, atc, airframe, avionics, safety, cost, mems

This paper presents the advanced technologies and approaches which potentially form the basis for determining the next step in the capabilities of UAVs from the aspect of improvements in flight performance, operational safety and operating costs. These technologies are currently under development but additional effort is required to achieve a maturity level of technological availability. These technologies can be divided into groups as follows :- Airframe - Developments in airframe technologies include aerodynamics, structures and propulsion. Avionics -Developments in avionics technologies include flight control, computers and communications. Safety - Development of safety technologies include integration within ATC / ATM, See & Avoid concepts and certification. Technologies relating to development and production will be aimed at reducing Life Cycle Costs (LCC). The paper presents examples of potential directions for future systems, based on advanced technologies of aircraft configuration and avionics concepts, for a series of defined missions.

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