Leading Systems Amber
| Leading Systems Amber | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Unmanned aerial vehicle for reconnaissance and as a cruise missile |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
November 1986 |
| Production time: |
1986-1990 |
| Number of pieces: |
13 |
The Leading Systems Amber is an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone, UAV) made by the US manufacturer Leading Systems Inc. in the 1980s. Well-known further developments of the device are the Gnat 750 and the MQ-1 .
history
In December 1984, DARPA began a secret program to develop a family of small, multi-purpose, high-performance UAVs. The contract, which was initially valued at $ 200 million, was signed with the small company Leading Systems Inc. (LSI). The company was founded in 1983 by the aeronautical engineer Abraham Karem, an Israeli who immigrated to the USA in the mid-1970s and who had already worked as a designer for the Israeli armed forces.
Leading Systems built and tested a number of different Amber prototypes. The first flight took place in November 1986. What they all had in common was the weight of less than 550 kg, the arrangement of the engine in the stern with a pusher propeller, a payload shaft in the bow and the general design as a shoulder -wing wing with an inverted V-tail unit . The unusual tail unit arrangement should protect the propeller from contact with the runway. Although all models had a wheeled undercarriage, they could be transported and launched from a tube with a diameter of 61 cm, with the wings rotated by 90 ° and resting on the fuselage. The cell was made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic .
Karems saw the requirements of the UAV tasks as so unique that he designed almost all the components of the aircraft in-house specifically for this task. In addition to the airframe, LSI also designed and built the engine, propeller, mission and flight control computer and the landing gear itself. The development group in Irvine and the testing center in El Mirage never exceeded 120 people.
By the time the secrecy was lifted in early 1988, LSI had produced six prototypes, three each as B45 reconnaissance drones and three as A45, which were planned as cheap slow-flying cruise missiles. The two variants differed in the shape of the fuselage and in the attachment of the wing. Later prototypes also included the R52 version, an experimental platform for a new small moving target indication radar (MTI) funded by DARPA.
In addition to the Amber models, LSI also manufactured some significantly smaller models for training purposes and as flying test benches for Amber subsystems, which were referred to as Gnat 400 . In 1988 the first Amber I flew. June 1988 set a new endurance flight record for UAVs with over 38 hours and exceeded the old record of a TRA Compass Cope R by ten hours.
LSI suggested at least three variants of the Amber I. Among them was the Amber III, which should achieve a longer flight time and better flight performance compared to the original model, but should remain in the same weight and cost class as smaller UAVs. Amber IV was a low cost HALE with a 19 m wingspan and a possible payload of radar and other sensors of 450 kg.
Not least because of the experiences with the failure of the US Army's one billion US dollar Aquila program, the Congress and Pentagon set up the Joint Program Office (JPO) for UAVs in 1987. The JPO focused on a few developments considered urgent: a tactical Army short-range UAV (SR-UAV) system, a USAF / Navy medium-range system (MR-UAV) and a high-speed jet-propelled system operated by a fighter or should take off from a short ramp and return on a parachute. The development of a UAV with a long flight time ( endurance UAV ) was postponed. Since the JPO had no budget of its own, on the other hand the DARPA itself was not allowed to continue the financing, LSI had to give up the development of the Amber. The focus was therefore on the Gnat 750 as an export version of the Amber, which had less complex avionics and sensitive reconnaissance systems. Either a KH-800T or a Rotax engine could be used as a drive. The first pre-series machine of the Gnat 750 flew for the first time in mid-1989.
A total of 13 ambers had been produced by 1990.
construction
The Amber was designed as a shoulder-decker, with the wing sitting on a short pylon. The V-tail was angled down and the conventional nose wheel landing gear retractable. The Amber prototypes were equipped with LSI's own liquid-cooled 16-valve four-cylinder engine KH-800. With a displacement of just 800 cm³, a continuous output of 48.5 kW (65 PS) could be achieved. In 1989 a running time of 200 hours was achieved in an altitude chamber with the turbo-charged and 112 kW (150 PS) variant KH-800T. For the US Navy, which does not use gasoline on board its aircraft carriers, a three-cylinder diesel variant with 1200 cm³ was developed, each cylinder containing two pistons. Karem claimed that the transfer speed of his design with the turbocharged engines was 460 to 550 km / h.
Technical specifications
Amber I, dimensions and performance data from www.designation-systems.net The values in brackets
| Parameter | Data |
|---|---|
| crew | 0 |
| length | 4.52 m (4.57 m) |
| span | 8.99 m (8.53 m) |
| Service ceiling | 7620 m |
| All-up weight | (336 kg) |
| Top speed | 200 km / h |
| Maximum flight time | 38 hours |
| Range | 2200 km |
| Engine | a four-cylinder piston engine LSI KH-800T with 112 kW (150 PS) power |
literature
- Bill Sweetman: HALE / MALE Unmanned Air Vehicles, Part 1: History of the Endurance UAV. In: International Air Power Review. Vol. 15, 2005, pp. 54-73.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ genesis-of-predator-uav
- ↑ http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app4/amber.html www.designation-systems.net
- ↑ HALE / MALE Unmanned Air Vehicles , Part 1, International Air Power Review, Vol. 15, p. 68.