The United States built unmanned aircraft to land by tail

The unmanned aircraft capable of landing anywhere with a tail (tailsitter) will turn all US Navy ships into aircraft carriers.

This design is part of a proposal by Northcop, a strategic reconnaissance mining program (TERN - tern) of the Advanced Defense Research Agency (DARPA) of the US Department of Defense.

"Small deck vessels such as frigates and corvettes can significantly increase efficiency if there are separate unmanned systems (UASs) to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) together. other capabilities at long range, "said the US Navy Office (ONR) and DARPA.

"DARPA has assigned phase 3 of the research team to Northrop Grumman Corporation's project" . Northrop Grumman is a large company specializing in US unmanned devices.

The first production of helicopters in 1942 helped the US military realize the potential value of flying and landing equipment (VTOL) to protect fleets, while reducing Dependence on carriers and shore bases.

DARPA wants an unmanned aerial vehicle that can operate on DDG class destroyers or smaller, carrying 272kg load up to 1,670km. It must also be able to land vertically on a deck that floats in high-wave conditions of 2.5 to 4 meters.

The idea of ​​designing new drones.(Photo: DARPA).

TERN's design will have many similarities to the Convair XFY-1 Pogo , such as tailsitter configuration with two rotors rotating in opposite directions mounted on the nose, to create vertical thrust for takeoff and landing, horizontal thrust during horizontal flight.

This is a VTOL fighter aircraft developed by the US Navy in the 1950s to support fleets. However, despite many successful drills, XFY-1 failed to overcome the prototype. Partly because at that time the Navy was more focused on fast jets, partly because the pilot would need to be trained a lot about landing on moving ships in rough seas.

In the new generation of aircraft, Northcop improved the tailsitter by combining engines and a pure wing design, a standard of many bombers and surveillance since the mid-1930s.

This is an unmanned device at true size, durable, operating at medium high altitudes, used on small vessels as a place to take off and maintain. It will have a pair of propellers like XFY - 1. The propellers will lift the plane from the deck, directing it to fly sideways and provide thrust to the aircraft. After that, it will redirect the aircraft when returning and land on the deck. When not in use, it is possible to place a safety system inside the ship.

"We will continue to innovate for the goal of developing groundbreaking technologies for ISR features and the ability to operate anywhere in the world, at a fraction of the cost, time and effort. now, " said Gil Graff, TERN program vice president at ONR.

"The partnership between ONR and DARPA in the TERN project continues to make rapid progress in the construction of a class of unmanned aircraft systems combining the ability to take off and land on ships, speed up degree and durability, automatic sophisticated monitoring ".

"If successful, TERN could expand the future capabilities for small Navy floating deck battleships and US Marines' aerial expeditions."

"Moving to an unmanned platform, refocusing on tasks, combined with modern precision navigation technology and other technologies has helped eliminate many of the challenges that XFY-1 and efforts Previous research was encountered in developing aircraft taking off from small ships, " said Dan Patt, DARPA program manager.

Helicopters are relatively limited by distance and travel time. Unmanned and unmanned fixed-wing aircraft can fly longer, longer but often require either a large carrier, or fixed base on shore with a minimum runway longer than a mile. TERN can overcome these disadvantages.

If the land test succeeds, the device will be tested at sea on take-off features, moving from straight to horizontal and reverse, landing. All tests were conducted on a deck of ships the size of a destroyer or small warships operating on small water.