Dornier Do 33 / KAD
Under the abbreviation KAD, an aerial reconnaissance system for corps reconnaissance drones was operated at Dornier from 1966 to 1970 . In 1966, Dornier received an order from the BMVg for a reconnaissance drone for battlefield surveillance and target acquisition in the area of an army corps , i.e. H. up to 150 km from the front edge of the defense. The army should be the user / operator, especially because the Air Force's RF-104 was only able to fulfill this task to a limited extent due to the known problems. In addition, the army considered the time between the overflight by the air force and the availability of the reconnaissance results to the army (approx. 4 hours) to be far too long. Therefore, day and night all-weather capability, the evaluation of the reconnaissance results directly at the battery and the possibility of re-using the drone one hour after returning from a mission were required for the drone. The project was canceled when the Bundeswehr changed its concept, the Air Force introduced the Phantom RF-4E and took on this reconnaissance as a "service" for the Army.
6 batteries were planned, with each battery having 6 missiles and ground systems for mission planning, launch, evaluation of the reconnaissance results and maintenance. The battery should be able to prepare a drone for a new take-off within an hour of landing.
The flight system is exhibited today in the Dornier Museum in Friedrichshafen .
description
In the concept and definition phase of 1966/1967, an agreement was reached on a high-speed drone powered by a jet engine from General Electric, which should fly low at Mach 0.85 (up to 1000 km / h) at a height of 100 to 1000 m above ground . The flight path with outward flight, return loop and return flight should be 400 km and would have taken about half an hour. The start should be done with a booster from a mount. To achieve the exact landing near the ground station, the drone should land vertically with a rotor like a helicopter. For this purpose, 3 rotor blades that could be shortened on the rotatable tail section in a stationary longitudinal position served as a tail unit during cruising flight, for rotor flight during landing they were rotated, extended telescopically and were driven by the hot exhaust gases of the jet engine through 3 fold-out nozzles. Technically speaking, the drone formed a drone-helicopter combination. In a helicopter flight, the drone should first place the sensor part next to the evaluation unit of the battery and then move it to the repair and take-off preparation unit in order to be prepared for the next mission.
Various sensor packages were planned that were to be installed / exchanged within 10 minutes as required, such as a series camera from Zeiss, an infrared line scanner from Hawker Siddeley or a high-resolution SLAR radar from Goodyear. The drone flew pre-programmed with an autopilot and was able to deliver the reconnaissance results simultaneously to the ground station via a data link.
Main development began in January 1968. A functional model was built and the rotor in particular was largely developed and tested.