From a Der Spiegel UAV photo gallery. Note the over-the-top caption. What is this toy plane? It looks like a Hobbyzone Phantom!
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From a Der Spiegel UAV photo gallery. Note the over-the-top caption. What is this toy plane? It looks like a Hobbyzone Phantom!
You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!
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It was aired this weekend here (and I remember it because the airplane broke at impact :-)
Earl
I did a search for the automatic landing on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDXoVf1p1b0
Oh my. That was actually the best one.
Maybe someone could sell the military a funjet with Ardupilot and save them some money?
Price: 2.2 million USD
Artikel 1
Expensive little cousin
Artikel says 16 million USD for 12 systems, not true it's 16 millions danish kroner.
History of the Raven program
In 1999, the U.S. Army bought four AeroVironment FQM-151 Pointer UAVs for the Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) ACTD (Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration) program. The Pointer system was found to be useful, but the ground control station was too large to be really man-portable. AeroVironment was therefore asked to develop a smaller station, and in turn the company also developed a smaller air vehicle, called Raven. It is about half the size of Pointer and a proof-of-concept vehicle, named the "Flashlight" SUAV (Small UAV), first flew in October 2001.
The "Flashlight" SUAV was further developed into the Raven in 2002 under the Army's "Pathfinder" ACTD program. The Raven prototype was hand-built and not suitable for mass production, and so the first LRIP (Low-Rate Initial Production) version was the modified Block I Raven, first delivered in May 2003. It had a new fuselage section with an easily interchangeable payload nose. Testing of the Block I UAVs revealed some drawbacks, including a difficult launch procedure and insufficient flight stability.
The Block I's shortcomings were corrected in the Block II version, which was first delivered to the Army in September 2003. The Block II was evaluated in Afghanistan, and the U.S. Special Operations Command eventually ordered a batch of 179 Raven systems with three UAVs each. In late 2004, the official designation RQ-11A was allocated to the Raven air vehicle.
The RQ-11A is essentially a down-sized FQM-151 Pointer, but thanks to improved technology can carry the same navigation system, control equipment, and payload. The operation of a Raven system is effectively identical to Pointer, making transition to the new smaller system particularly easy. The Raven UAV weighs about 1.9 kg (4.2 lb), has a flight endurance of 80 minutes and an effective operational radius of about 10 km (6.2 miles). Flying speed is 45-95 km/h (28-60 mph) at typical operating altitude between 30 m and 300 m (100-1000 ft). The RQ-11A can be either remotely controlled from the ground station or fly completely autonomous missions using GPS waypoint navigation. The UAV can be ordered to immediately return to its launch point simply by pressing a single command button. Standard mission payloads include CCD color video and an infrared camera.
As of early 2005, a total of more than 1300 Raven vehicles have been built, with about 2000 more on contract, and by 2006 the Army was expected to decide if it would use the Raven as a long-term asset or if it would be replaced by so-called Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs). Reportedly, the Air Force's Special Operations Command has also purchased an unknown number of Ravens.
A single Raven costs about $35,000 and the total system costs $250,000.
www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/raven.htm
Can this be real, can the military really be deploying FPV Ravens? I bet they pay a load for them as well if they do.
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