Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR)

Jemiba · 5 May 2007

"Piasecki also had some interesting ideas on rotorcraft unmanned air vehicles for
the US Army's Future Combat Systems, including a modern version of its AirGeep,
but they were cancelled last year."

Yes, the UCAR program was cancelled (UCAR = US Cancelled Another Rotorcraft ),
but I think, reasons weren't mostly in the field of aerodynamics,
or structures, but in the demands for more autonomy of the UAV in comparison with,
say the Predator.

CammNut · 5 May 2007

UCAR was not part of the Future Combat Systems programme - which started out with four classes of UAV from a Honeywell ducted fan small enough to carry in a backpack (Class I) up to the Northrop Grumman Fire Scout (Class IV) - but I agree the army has cancelled a lot of rotorcraft programmes.

UCAR was a DARPA programme for a unmanned rotorcraft that could work in "packs" with manned helicopters, and was going quite well (in the laboratory) until the US Army said it wasn't going to fund it any more.

Piasecki's FCS UAV designs were aimed at the vehicle-carried Class II (the AirGeep derivative) and containerised Class III (a modified autogyro) requirements.

Here are some view of Lockheed Martin's UCAR

CammNut · 6 May 2007

And here are some images of Northrop Grumman's UCAR, which used the intermeshing-rotor dynamic system from the Kaman K-Max external lifter.

flateric · 8 June 2007

Anyone close to (I know you are here) can say what's happening to UCAR? I've already noticed that before one decides to grab 'this cool looking pics' on his hard drive from the net, many programs are disappearing from the horizon...

flateric · 8 June 2007

Oh, damn...

So cool I have got a while promo stuff on the thing(s) from <...>. Even filenames match)))

donnage99 · 28 March 2010

I know there has been various discussion, info, and pictures lurking here and there in different threads, but I agree with Flateric that we should start seperate thread. I found some pdf, but doesn't find it appropriate to post in the recent uav/ucav thread anymore, partly due to how long ago that thread was. I also request that the posts reguarding ucar from the other thread merged to this one? Anyway, here's what I found:
http://www.vtol.org/pdf/ucarvertfall04.pdf
http://www.vtol.org/pdf/ucarvertsum04.pdf

donnage99 · 28 March 2010

Some pix from the links:

donnage99 · 28 March 2010

.......

donnage99 · 28 March 2010

......

donnage99 · 29 March 2010

Does anyone know why when I "save as" the picture from the pdf, it comes out so much darker than the original?

turboshaft · 1 April 2010

The original proposals from Boeing, LM and NG, plus a couple more images of the goblin in action (from the good ol' days of 2004 when the margin for 'acceptable collateral damage' was somewhat higher).

donnage99 · 1 April 2010

In the fall report, the chart that shows the teaming and the responsibilities shared by team member indicates that northrop space division would provide high-energy laser. Does that mean they planned for the ucar to have directed energy weapon?

donnage99 · 18 May 2010

Here's a short clip of the video I found. I really need help to find the rest of it (the entire video should be 9 minutes long). It would be great if anyone has it or know a way to gain access to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycWHkWOQWmo

I originally found it here:
http://www.cerici.com/media&pubs/documents/2004workshop/movies/HumanMachineInteractionConcepts.mpg

It was part of this paper:
http://www.cerici.com/media&pubs/documents/2004workshop/04presentations/HumanMachineInteractionConcepts.pdf

donnage99 · 20 May 2010

Cartercopter with its heliplane concept were selected by Northrop Grumman to be on the team, but later, NG opted for Kaman instead. They called it cc-ucar. From Popular Machanics october 2002:

donnage99 · 19 January 2011

finally i found a larger version of this:

Mod edit: replaced by the high-res image in the further post

Matej · 19 January 2011

What about this? BTW does anybody have the idea what the Sikorsky originally proposed?

Stargazer · 19 January 2011

Well, I have only one picture of something supposed to be a Sikorsky UCAR proposal, but find neither the artwork nor the design too convincing... See for yourself.

donnage99 · 19 January 2011

Matej said:
What about this? BTW does anybody have the idea what the Sikorsky originally proposed?

thanks bud. Here's the sikorsky/raytheon proposal, from flightglobal archive, I think. I don't know if this is their submitted design or simply a generic design:

Matej · 20 January 2011

Thanks. At least something to begin with.

Stargazer2006 said:
Well, I have only one picture of something supposed to be a Sikorsky UCAR proposal, but find neither the artwork nor the design too convincing... See for yourself.

To me it looks like one of the UHV (Unmanned Hybrid Vehicle) concepts.

InvisibleDefender · 20 January 2011

pdf article - posted here with permisison

donnage99 · 21 July 2011

R S models of Lockheed/Bell proposal. Note the evolution of Lockheed/Bell models from faceted shaping to a more blended one:

donnage99 · 21 July 2011

Some more:

InvisibleDefender · 21 July 2011

Very cool Donnage - thanks for sharing! Is that trade show model in your fornt yard? And where are all those desk models at? Sadly, I never got one.

donnage99 · 21 July 2011

These are not mine. I found it here (I thought I posted the link, but turned out I didn't):
http://www.rsmodelsmanufacturing.com/rs3/ucar10.html

I think Bell hired these guys to make those models for them.

fightingirish · 7 October 2011

LM UCAR RCS models:
http://www.thehowlandcompany.com/RCS-ranges.htm

donnage99 · 7 October 2011

fightingirish said:
LM UCAR RCS models:
http://www.thehowlandcompany.com/RCS-ranges.htm

The one on the left is Northrop and the one on the right is lockmart

XP67_Moonbat · 26 November 2011

http://www.northropgrumman.com/paris2009/images/pdf/paris-as-fire-scout-briefing.pdf

Mark Nankivil · 6 September 2012

Good Day All -

An info sheet on Boeing's UCAR proposal which I picked up during a recent visit to the Boeing Prologue Room.

Enjoy the Day! Mark

antigravite · 8 December 2013

Hi,

I'm not sure this has ever been posted/noticed here but here is something that might be connected.
The Howland Company is a radar range building specialist and their website offers a wild bunch of information on most US RCS aerospace facilities (cause they built them - my understanding). One page displays something quite unusual that might be connected to the present topic: two different stealth helicopter models claimed to be tested at the RATSCAT facility. The pictures seems to date back to a long while ago before digital camera were common. So...

http://www.thehowlandcompany.com/radar_stealth/RCS-ranges.htm
http://www.thehowlandcompany.com/images/10/ratscat%20helo%201.jpg
http://www.thehowlandcompany.com/images/10/ratscat%20helo%202.jpg

A.

flateric · 8 December 2013

these are UCAR RCS models

xstatic3000 · 8 December 2013

Flateric beat me to it - however, some of the UCAR concepts provide a glimpse into the direction of LO rotorcraft design in the late 90's to early 2000's:

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1966.0.html

antigravite · 8 December 2013

xstatic3000 said:
Flateric beat me to it - however, some of the UCAR concepts provide a glimpse into the direction of LO rotorcraft design in the late 80's to the early 90's:

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1966.0.html

Ooopss really sorry… Most sincere apologies...
I even noticed these pictures had already been posted by [fightingirish] on october 7th, 2011, in this more appropriate thread/post:

fightingirish said:
LM UCAR RCS models:
http://www.thehowlandcompany.com/RCS-ranges.htm

... Errr... My mistake... Sorry guys...

A.

quellish · 8 December 2013

xstatic3000 said:
Flateric beat me to it - however, some of the UCAR concepts provide a glimpse into the direction of LO rotorcraft design in the late 80's to the early 90's:

UCAR was early 2000s.

Triton · 20 January 2014

Artist's impression of Boeing UCAR (Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft) from Boeing Frontiers magazine May 2003.

Source:
http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2003/may/cover2.html

Triton · 20 January 2014

Artist's impressions of Northrop Grumman/Kaman UCAR concept.

Source:
http://cs.ecs.baylor.edu/~engfer/

Triton · 9 March 2015

Video of Northrop Grumman/Kaman UCAR concept desktop model manufactured by PacMin.

http://youtu.be/Eevxfy_R6zg

flateric · 15 May 2015

Triton · 16 February 2017

Artist's impression of Northrop Grumman-Kaman UCAR concept courtesy of Aldo Spadoni.

flateric · 11 August 2017

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/northrop-grumman-ucar-desk-model-1854841634

flateric · 11 August 2017

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/pacmin-pacific-miniatures-35-northrop-1627941984

Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR)

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