P1: OTE/OTE/SPH P2: OTE
FM JWBK459-Austin March 19, 2010 12:44 Printer Name: Yet to Come
Preface
The development and entry into service of unmanned air vehicle systems has a long, drawn-out history.
Unfortunately, the vision of engineers and scientists is seldom matched by that of administrators,
regulators or financiers. The availability of UAV systems has also often depended upon maturation of
the requisite technology.
UAV systems are now being operated by several military forces and currently, to a more limited extent,
by civilian organisations. These latter operations, however, may eventually expand to exceed, in number
and diversity, those of the military.
The systematic nature of UAV systems, which is achieved through the combination of many elements
and their supporting disciplines, will be emphasised throughout this book. Although the aircraft element
is but one part of the coordinated system, it is almost certainly the element which drives the requirements
of the other system elements to the greatest extent.
The aircraft itself will have much in common with manned aircraft, but also several differences which
are explained. These differences often result from the differences in operational requirements compared
with manned aircraft, for example the need to take off from remote, short, unprepared airstrips or to fly
for long periods at very high altitudes. The performance of the aircraft is often enhanced by not having
to carry the weight of equipment and structure required to accommodate aircrew, and having a lower
aerodynamic drag for the same reason. The UAV also often benefits from advantageous scale effects
associated with a smaller aircraft.
It is not the author’s intention to provide a textbook to expound in detail the many UAV engineering
disciplines, which include, of course, aerodynamics, electronics, economics, materials, structures, ther-
modynamics, etc., but rather to show how the disciplines are integrated into the design, development and
deployment of the UAV systems. It is the intention also to explain the manner in which their application
may differ from their use in other aerospace and engineered systems.
On occasions, for example in Chapter 3, the author has entered into the theory of the discipline in
order to dispel some myths and to bring the reader’s attention to the significant aspects without the need
for the reader to find his way through a specialist textbook on the subject.
Similarly, the history and evolution of UAV Systems (Chapter 28) is considered only in order to point
out how UAS have evolved and where lessons have been, or should have been, learned from that history
and the probable way forward.
The systems nature of UAV makes it impractical and undesirable to cover elements in isolation, some
aspects therefore appear in more than one chapter, but at different levels of detail. The author intends this
to be reinforcement of key aspects. For a more detailed knowledge of the several disciplines, the reader
is directed to the specialist works listed in the reference sections.
Examples of several systems and their sub-systems are used to explain the principles involved. The
technology continues rapidly to evolve, so that the examples used will not necessarily reflect the latest
available when this book reaches publication, but the principles will still apply. The reader is again
referred to the reference sections for up-to-date listings of current systems.