Some very interesting programs (some built, some not) found in an appendix of a 1972 report done by Battelle for ARPA and entitled: A SURVEY AND TECHNICAL SYSTEMS ASSESSMENT OF DRONE AIRCRAFT FOR TACTICAL RECONNAISSANCE AND SURVEILLANCE (the whole report is extremely interesting).
Depicted or mentioned in this appendix are:
- U.S. Army AMCA's ELTAS
- Canadian Westinghouse Periscopter
- Nord Aviation Nord 510
- Societe Charles Marchetti Heliscope
- Tracy Teknocraft Tethered Platform
- Convair General Dynamics LALO
The U. S. Army's Advanced Materiel Concepts Agency (AMCA) has developed a concept paper for an Elevated Target Acquisition System (ELTAS). The evaluation of this concept has progressed to the stage of a preliminary systems engineering design study. The ELTAS flight vehicle would be an unmanned, electrically-powered, counterrotating, rotary-wing, tethered platform. The vehicle would carry approximately 200 lb of primary mission equipment, including a laser target designator, and would operate at elevations up to 1,000 ft. The necessary electrical power and critical data links would be provided through the tether. (...)
One concept proposed by General Dynamics involved a free hovering platform based upon a ducted fan propulsion principle. The tethered platform gives the hard link to the ground station and the long endurance can be achieved by supplying electrical power or even fuel through the tether. Dornier's Kiebitz is the most publicized example of this type of system and it is probably the most advanced conceptually and developmentally.
All of the developmental tethered platform systems have encountered vehicle stability problems. None of the concepts has involved a vehicle in which the countertorque problem was solved in the conventional helicopter fashion using a counter-torque auxiliary rotor. In fact, the most of the concepts do not involve the use of helicopter type, large-diameter rotors. Some have attempted to use relatively high-disk-loading, counter rotating propellers (e.g., the QH-50) and ducted fans. The Kiebitz, the ELTAS concept, and the Marchetti Heliscope are closest to being rotating wing-type vehicles. The Kiebitz uses tip jets to drive the rotor, thus avoiding the counter-torque problem. The Marchetti vehicle and several others use counter-rotating electric motors to drive propellers or rotors. Stability problems have been common. Most of the systems, the Kiebitz included, have not attained the all-weather objective which has been established for these systems. Most have been unsuccessful in all but relatively low winds.
There is also evidence that the small-amplitude unsteadiness and vibrations inherent in the use of these platforms have raised doubt about their compatibility with certain sensors. Most of the tethered platform developments have not been able to achieve the endurance objectives, even though the energy is continuously supplied from the ground.
Basically, this is a reliability problem.
In October 1969, the Army Combat Developments Command established an approved Advanced Development Objective (ADO) for an Unmanned Aerial Surveillance System (UASS). Apparently, a helicopter type of vehicle was envisioned, probably inspired by the Canadair CL-227 concept.
Most of the systems, the Kiebitz included, have not attained the all-weather objective which has been established for these systems. Most have been unsuccessful in all but relatively low winds.
Most have been unsuccessful in all but relatively low winds. There is also evidence that the small-amplitude unsteadiness and vibrations inherent in the use of these platforms have raised doubt about their compatibility with certain sensors. Most of the tethered platform developments have not been able to achieve the endurance objectives, even though the energy is continuously supplied from the ground.
Basically, this is a reliability problem.
That's a great clip, thanks for sharing. It seems like a fantastic configuration for a little UAV, even today, with potential for being very quiet with both engine and prop shielded by the duct.
(Reconnaissance, Surveillance, Targeting Vehicle (RST-V) program)
COVER (Commander's Observation Vehicle for Elevated Reconnaissance) features an existing compact, electrically-tethered, ducted-fan lifting vehicle (Aerobot) mated to an existing highly-mobile, transportable vehicle (Flyer II ) that is representative of future scout and reconnaissance vehicles.
I've tried to identify the project in Wilf Hardy's painting, but it's probably a generic or fictitious design.
It can be found in this page (#5 of six full pages of material) dedicated to Hardy's beautiful aviation paintings:
https://www.meisterdrucke.com/k%C3%BCnstler/Wilf-Hardy/5.html
I've tried to identify the project in Wilf Hardy's painting, but it's probably a generic or fictitious design.
It can be found in this page (#5 of six full pages of material) dedicated to Hardy's beautiful aviation paintings:
https://www.meisterdrucke.com/k%C3%BCnstler/Wilf-Hardy/5.html
A photo of the truck (a Henschel Typ HA 115 A, BW designation TVM-Lkw 5 t gl (4x4)) with the Dornier Do 34, that may
have been the pattern can be found here:
I've tried to identify the project in Wilf Hardy's painting, but it's probably a generic or fictitious design.
It can be found in this page (#5 of six full pages of material) dedicated to Hardy's beautiful aviation paintings:
“Periscopter” is a remotely controlled, space stabilized, tethered platform carrying a viewing system which can be used to supplement present line-of-sight missile fire control systems, to provide out-of-line-of-sight capability to existing or planned tank weapon systems, for battlefield surveillance as well as for artillery and mortar fire control. Briefly, it is an “eye in the sky”.
Periscopter is tethered to the ground station by means of a cable which controls flying height and provides power to the motors and the viewing device. In addition the cable is used to transmit video signals and information to the ground station located in an armoured personnel carrier or similar vehicle. The system includes azimuth orientation reference and makes provision for obtaining an instantaneous bearing relative to this reference. The Periscopter may be flown at heights up to 200 meters (656.2 ft.) above ground level. This “eye in the sky”, with a monitor located in a vehicle, permits observation combined with a personnel safety which was not previously possible.
Periscopter is now undergoing advanced development at Canadian Westinghouse and this is backed up by research and studies being conducted at Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment of the Defence Research Board.
Some of the more obvious uses and benefits of the equipment are as follows:
It is possible that forward Observation Officers may now be situated in vehicles when Periscopter is employed.
Use of reconnaissance patrols, as we presently know them, may be lessened.
Guess work associated with mortar indirect fire will be largely overcome.
Enemy concentrations will be more easily spotted.
Logistic savings in ammunition through more accurate ranging techniques.
With respect to operation the design criteria have ensured that pre-flight preparation, launch, recovery and post-flight stowage operations can be carried out by two men only, one being the operator, without dismounting from the parent vehicle. Other considerations ensure that the operator can carry out all flight control activities without relaxing his monitoring observations.
Technical training and knowledge requirements are of interest for they call for no greater degree of skill than presently expected with short range surveillance or ATGM equipments.
CHARACTERISTICS
1. RANGE:
Real time continuous picture surveillance coverage out to 5000 meters. (17,404 ft.)
2. OPERATING HEIGHT:
Up to 200 meters (656.2 ft.) above ground level.
3. FIELD OF VIEW:
Wide angle 750 mils. Narrow angle 55 mils.
Coverage 360 degrees in azimuth and +5 degrees to — 20 degrees elevation at the centre of the display.
4. RESOLUTION:
Recognize a stationary medium tank at 5000 meters. (17,404 ft.)
5. SIZE AND WEIGHT:
Rotor diameter 4.5 ft. (1.4 m)
Weight of airborne system 80 lbs. (36.3 kg)
Total System Weight, including ground element, approx. 500 lbs. (226.8 kg)
6. Ascent to maximum altitude—60 secs.
Complete recovery operation—90 secs.
7. Azimuth bearing read-out relative to Magnetic N. +20 mils.
8. Vehicle installation—MII3 APC or similar vehicles.
The story of Canadair’s family of vertical take off and landing unpiloted aerial vehicles (VTUAVs) began around 1964 when John P. Kerr, an engineer who had played a crucial role in the development of the Canadair CL-89 reconnaissance drone, was asked to evaluate a tethered, short-range battlefield surveillance VTUAV fitted with electric motors that drove a pair of rotors, the Periscopter. The electricity needed to run the motors came through cables linking that drone to the ground.
The three main organisations involved in this project were…
- Canadian Westinghouse,
- the Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment, in Valcartier, Québec, and
- Servotec, a British firm responsible for the design and manufacture of the stabilising tail rotors of the Canadair CL-84 experimental vertical take off and landing aircraft.
Kerr's conclusion was that a free flying VTUAV fitted with an internal combustion engine would better fit the bill.
Even though only one or at best a few Periscopters were built and tested before the project was shelved, around 1967-68, Kerr was so intrigued by the idea of a VTUAV that he and a small team prepared a series of design studies collectively known as Dynacopters. Canadair and the British government provided some financial support. The company designation CL-227 was officially given, in May 1967, to a thoroughly redesigned Dynacopter concept.
Incidentally, the Periscopter was not the first tethered flying machine powered by electricity supplied through cables. Allgemeine Electricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) apparently tested a piloted vehicle of its own design around 1933.
An earlier design was the brainchild of Major Ross Franklin Moore, a British Army officer who served in the British Raj with the Corps of Royal Engineers. While stationed in Rangoon, today’s Yangon, Myanmar, in 1890, he contacted a small engineering firm, Messrs. J. Shaw & Sons of Coventry and asked that it build an ornithopter whose design was based on that of an as yet unidentified species of bat.
Realising a few months or so into the project that the bat he had chosen would not do, seemingly as a result of experiments conducted in or near Rangoon, Moore chose another bat species, a flying fox species to be more precise.
Work on the new design began in Coventry in early 1891. Completed in early 1892, not too long before Moore’s retirement, in July, and, presumably, before his return to England, that tethered ornithopter was fitted with an electric motor linked by cables to one or two high voltage power lines. It was to be used as an aerial (civilian?) survey or (military?) observation platform. Seemingly tested near Coventry, that utterly unique flying machine proved unable to fly.
Interestingly, Moore immigrated to Canada around 1910. He died in Victoria, British Columbia, in June 1923, at the age of 76.
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