Unmanned aviation

Various modern "reconnaissance drones" from the USMC

As unmanned aviation is any aviation activities, with unmanned aerial vehicles (in the strict sense only unmanned usable are performed).

Beginnings of unmanned aviation

Wright glider,
Wilbur l., Orville r. in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1901

Originally, unmanned aviation preceded manned aviation in order to test or develop aircraft (see for example Montgolfière or glider by the Wright brothers ). But as early as the 19th century, Léon-Philippe Teisserenc de Bort and other unmanned weather balloons were using them for atmospheric and climate research.

The development of autopilot systems from 1914 onwards made the construction of unmanned aircraft, especially aircraft, possible, even if an important requirement today, namely reusability, was not always given (e.g. V1 with automatic gyro course control ).

Remote controls , automatic landing systems, and ever more sophisticated autopilot systems have resulted in true unmanned aviation, with special unmanned aerial vehicles and associated flight guidance systems that serve a variety of purposes.

Short chronology of unmanned aviation

Cover of the balloon " Ad Astra ", which rose on January 28, 1784 in Braunschweig .

Planaphore , model airplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871

• 1783, June 4th. First flight of an unmanned hot air balloon by the Montgolfier brothers in Annonay / France.
• 1784, January 28th. First flight of the unmanned Ad Astra gas balloon in Braunschweig .
• 1849. Franz von Uchatius bombs Venice with balloon bombs with the Austro-Hungarian army .
• 1871. The French inventor Alphonse Pénaud developed his model airplane Planaphore , which was equipped with a rubber motor and flew 60 m.
• 1900. Nikola Tesla wrote about remote-controlled bombers and built a remote-controlled mini zeppelin.
• 1901. The Wright brothers test their Wright Glider with twistable wings, a predecessor of the ailerons , unmanned as a kite.
• 1914, June 18, Lawrence Sperry demonstrates his gyroscope- guided autopilot in a Curtiss biplane in Paris .
• 1931. The British Royal Air Force equips three machines of the type Fairey III F under the designation Fairey Queen with radio control and uses them as target drones , training targets, for fighter pilots.

Radioplane OQ-2, target drone of the Radioplane Company , 1940

• 1935. The actor Reginald Denny , a former First World War -Pilot, developed in 1935, a remote-controlled drone as an inexpensive target for the training of air defense - gunners and put them to the US Army before. He acquired the final draft of such a target drone from Walter Righter in 1938. For the RP-4 (Radioplane 4) model, which was ready for series production in 1939 , he and his partners received a series production order from the US Army in 1940. The Radio Plane Company made until the end of the war of the Second World War, a total of 15,000 target drones, the military designation Radio Plane OQ-2 received.
• In 1937, Dr. Fritz Gosslau at Argus Motoren Gesellschaft developed the remote-controlled aircraft Argus As 292 Fernfeuer (reconnaissance aircraft and target drone). 100 pieces were made.
• 1942, December 24th: Flight tests for the first cruise missile , the German V1 , began; on June 12, 1944 the first V1 deployment takes place in London; a total of around 10,000 V1 were started on various goals.
• The British and Japanese use balloon bombs in World War II .
• 1960–1962. The loss of several reconnaissance aircraft, including two U2s over the Soviet Union and Cuba, prompted the US Department of Defense to invest money in studies and prototype construction of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, e.g. B. the D-21 . Target drones in use are the starting point for the first drafts.
• 1966. Hirtenberger AG (Austria) built drones that were equipped with their own one and two-cylinder engines (glow igniters). The flight speed was up to 250 km / h. These drones were launched from a 7 m long launch pad on wheels with a rubber cable catapult. Several drones could fly at the same time.
• 1973-75. After heavy losses of the Israeli air force to anti-aircraft missiles in the Yom Kippur war , the Israeli company Tadiran developed the first so-called battlefield UAV system under the name Mastiff for combat zone surveillance.
• 1982, June. During the Lebanon war , the Israeli army succeeds in determining all the locations of the 28 anti-aircraft missile positions of the Syrian army in the Bekaa with reconnaissance missions using UAV systems (including IAI Mastiff) and then completely destroying them.

The Boeing 720 test aircraft in various stages of the Controlled Impact Demonstration : Top left in the test approach; the other pictures show the actual service.

• 1984. As part of the Controlled Impact Demonstration , the remote control of a large commercial aircraft, a Boeing 720 , is demonstrated for the first time ; this is brought to a controlled crash for test purposes
• 1985. During the Iran-Iraq war developed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps UAV types that up to six reactive anti-tank rifles of the type RPG-7 carry and could fire. According to previous research, these are the first UAVs that were used for direct combat use (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle).
• 1990 Introduction of the Canadair CL-289 reconnaissance drone in the German and French armed forces

RQ-1 Predator, US Air Force

• 1995. The US Air Force introduces the Predator UAV system . It is used in different versions for both combat surveillance and targeting ( Kosovo war , war in Afghanistan )
• 1998, February 28. First flight of the RQ-4A Global Hawk , an unmanned high-altitude and long-range reconnaissance aircraft.

Aerosonde Laima on
display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington

• 1998, August 21. The UAV Aerosonde Laima from Aerosonde Ltd was the first UAV to cross the North Atlantic in non-stop flight . Take-off and landing were carried out manually by remote control. Laima carried out the actual overflight autonomously. Flight distance 3,270 km, flight time 26 h 45 min.
• 2000, April 20: First transatlantic flight of a Global Hawk .
• 2001, April 23rd: First Global Hawk crossing of the Pacific.
• 2003, August. The RQ-4A Global Hawk was the first unmanned aircraft to receive a COA (Certificate of Authorization) from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and thus a national approval to operate an unmanned aircraft in civilly controlled US airspace. The US Air Force alone has a need for around 150 Global Hawk systems.
• 2003, March. According to reports from the New York Times , US forces deployed at least 700 UAV systems in the Third Gulf War , including Predator and Global Hawk systems.
• 2003, 11-13 August. The Tam 5 (take-off weight less than 5.0 kg) is the first model airplane to cross the North Atlantic.
• 2003, October 15 - November 6. For test purposes, a Global Hawk is being relocated from Edwards Air Force Base / California to Nordholz / Germany in order to test EADS electronic components and the management of a UAV in European airspace.
• 2005, June 27. In a press release, the pilots' association Cockpit points out the safety deficits in the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in civil airspace . There were no regulations for UAV operations in civil aviation. The operation of these aircraft in the same airspace together with manned aircraft - without building and operating regulations that have been adapted and regulated to the new conditions - can represent a considerable threat to flight safety.
• 2006, March. According to a report in the newspaper Die Welt , the European countries France, Greece, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain have agreed to develop the unmanned Neuron fighter jet in competition with the US UAV by 2011.

Heron I of the German Air Force

• 2007. A “federal-state drones project group ” set up by the German Conference of Interior Ministers is to examine the use of micro-air vehicles by the police under “tactical, legal and police-technical aspects”. As a result, many police forces are using police drones .
• 2010, February. The first of three Heron I reconnaissance drones leased by the German Air Force arrives in Afghanistan, where they will be successfully deployed from March 18, 2010.
• 2012, January. In an amendment to the Aviation Act , the German Bundestag decided, without further discussion, on the night of January 26th to 27th, 2012, for “unmanned aviation systems” up to 150 kilograms to participate in air traffic on an equal footing with manned aircraft.
• 2013, December. Logistics companies announce that they are planning logistics drones that can transport two to three kilograms over a few kilometers. In a field trial in 2014, DHL tested the liner service of a "Paketkopter" between the port city of Norden and the North Sea island of Juist for several months .

The Ehang 184 UAV, the first passenger drone, was presented at CES 2016 .

• 2016, January. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Chinese company Ehang presents the world's first "passenger drone" Ehang 184, which can carry a person up to 100 kg as a passenger . At the time of the presentation, there are still no guidelines or approval procedures for the use of such drones.

Motivations for unmanned aviation

• All-up weight and miniaturization: unmanned aerial systems, d. H. Flying systems without a crew on board are not only lighter by the weight of the crew, they also save weight and space for life support and rescue systems (e.g. pressurized cabin, ejector seat). For many tasks, unmanned systems can be designed to be much smaller and more efficient than manned solutions.
• Flight maneuvers: Unmanned aerial vehicles can fly flight maneuvers with high accelerations, which pilots would not survive without health consequences. They can therefore be designed to be much more agile and agile.
• Safety: Unmanned aerial vehicles can be sent on missions where, despite all precautionary measures, loss cannot be ruled out. This includes u. a. Missions over unrest areas (danger of being shot down), areas of contamination (danger of poisoning, radiation etc.) as well as areas with environmental disasters (volcanic ash clouds, danger of eruption).
• Duration of flight: Unmanned aerial vehicles can be designed for flight times that exceed the capabilities of a pilot. If you decide not to return, the area of ​​action can also be considerably enlarged.

Associations and Working Committees

The rules for aviation are determined across borders by the ICAO . Each state is also sovereign to set rules for the airspace over its national territory. In Europe, since September 9, 2018, the Basic Aviation Regulation has mandated the EASA to develop uniform rules across Europe. The prepared templates are published by the European Commission in a simplified procedure. Research institutions, manufacturers, users and pilots of unmanned aerial vehicles organize themselves in associations to comment on the proposed legislation. Here would be u. a. the UAV DACH - Association for Unmanned Aviation .

Rules for the implementation of laws and for technical cooperation are defined in standards and norms. Representatives of the industry or legislators develop templates that are approved by technical experts.

Working committees

• DIN Working Committee NL 131-01 Unmanned Aviation
• ASD STAN
• ISO
• JARUS - Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems

Examples of uses

Aircraft heavier than air

• research
• Deficopter
• High platform
• Logistics drone
• Aerial photography
• Military UAV
• Collect meteorological data
• Flight model construction , especially first person view
• Traffic monitoring
• Further development of flight technology

Aircraft lighter than air

• Weather balloon
• Research balloon
• Balloon mail

See also

• List of unmanned aerial vehicles
• Unmanned aerial vehicle
• Unmanned space travel

Web links

• German-speaking association for unmanned aerial systems (UAV DACH)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Braunschweiger Luftfahrtgeschichte e. V. (Ed.): Braunschweigische Luftfahrtgeschichte. Appelhans Verlag Braunschweig 2010, ISBN 978-3-941737-18-1 , p. 48.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Wieland Schneider u. Wolfgang Greber, Die Presse am Sonntag, Vienna, February 3, 2013, Abroad, p. 5
3. ^ Josef Mötz: Hirtenberger AG - The first 150 years . Hirtenberg AG, Hirtenberg 2010 ( Hirtenberger AG [PDF]). Hirtenberger AG ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Iran's Asymmetric Naval Warfare (PDF; 667 kB) The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Retrieved February 26, 2012.
5. ↑ Drones: German police officers as remote aircraft drivers
6. ↑ Bundestag passes “Drone Act” . Heise online. Retrieved February 26, 2012.
7. ↑ First passenger drone makes its debut at CES First passenger drone makes its debut at CES