After months of not being on blogger and talking about my passion, I am finally back. The last couple of months have been crazy due to my first semester of college. Whether is was getting use to classes, making new friends, or finding the balance between everything, it seemed I didn't have time. But, with my classes, friends and organization set, I'm back and ecstatic.
Being at school, I can't really work on my Mission Space program much, which I do plan on changing the name to something simpler. SATL? (Stars Are The Limit). With that said, I want to stay an active member within the drone world, or as an official member now, AUVSI word, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. To do this, I will be blogging a couple times a week about the recent UAV or UAS news. The first one comes from the AUVSI website by Brett Davis <http://www.auvsi.org/020413grayeagle>
The first line of the article states, "The U.S. Army is moving to expand the operations of its MQ-1C Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft, deploying more systems to theater while prepping for a full-rate production award this summer." This is fantastic news for anyone involved in UAV or UAS line of work. With recent news about the Army cutting back spending and somewhat down grading, it seemed as though anything dealing with military contracts would be as well. But this shows how powerful and how big of an asset UAS and drones are for the military.
With the possible cutting back on soldiers, who cost upwards of $850,000 per year per solider, this leaves room for UAS. Drones and UAS now can take the place of some soldiers; those who would usual do surveillance, dangerous recon or anything else that a UAS could take over.
On that note, lets go back to the Gray Eagle and get some background on this marvelous piece of machinery. The MQ-1C Gray Eagle is a Medium Altitude Long Endurance, MALE, UAV aircraft. This aircraft is developed and produced by the legendary General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. When one thinks of a typical UAV, this is the picture in their head. With its fat front head, smaller wings and back propeller, its truly an aeronautical masterpiece. According to Wikipedia "the Gray Eagle has an increased wingspan and is powered by a Thielert Centurion 1.7 Heavy Fuel Engine (HFE).[10] This is a Diesel piston engine that burns jet fuel, giving the aircraft better performance at high altitudes. It will be capable of operating for 36 hours at altitudes up to 25,000 feet (7,600 m),[5] with an operating range of 200 nautical miles (400 km).[11]"
With these specs, and its army history, no wonder Col. Timothy Baxter, the U.S. Army’s project manager for unmanned systems, stated that “It’s been a busy year for the Gray Eagle program.” It truly has been, last spring a brigade of Gray Eagles were sent into Afghanistan, with a second starting in a mere 90 days.
What I liked most about this article is the Competition section, here the author, Brett Davis, talks about the future of the Military and UAS's. "The Army recently announced a $248 million contract split between five companies for small unmanned aircraft, and Baxter said more competition in that arena is on the way. The Army is also competing its services program for small UAS and plans to have a request for proposals on the street soon."
This is another set of great news for UAS companies, especially smaller start-ups. Most of the start up companies I have seen thus far, American Aerospace and the UAV Factory, are more into the smaller to medium sized UASs. These are more for a soldier or even civilian to be able to toss the UAV into the air and be able to control it with simple background knowledge in aerodynamics and R/C control. With the possibility of a Military contract, the sky, no, the stars are the limit for these companies
With all this news about the Military and UASs, I truly believe that there future, as well as mine, are extremely bright
- Robert Zybrick
Mission Space - Founder
