Technology Holds Promise For Many Types Of Aircraft

Athena Technologies announced Wednesday the successful flight demonstration of damage tolerant flight control and autonomous landing capabilities on a subscale F/A-18 UAV. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsored the demonstration, which was held on April 18, 2007 at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland.

The objective of the test was to prove that adaptive flight controls could regain baseline aircraft performance after the aircraft had sustained simulated battle damage and then safely land the aircraft autonomously with only the onboard INS/GPS functionality of Athena's GuideStar 111m for navigation.

The demonstration involved a subscale F/A-18 UAV, powered by a turbojet engine, that sustained wing battle damage simulated with the in-flight ejection of an aileron (shown above). Athena's damage tolerant controls detected the damage in flight and adapted to the new air vehicle configuration for the effects of the lost aileron, recovering the baseline vehicle performance.

The vehicle then successfully landed in the damaged state with Athena's INS/GPS-only autonomous landing system within a few feet of the target touch down point on the airfield runway. 

Damage tolerance is an enabling capability for increasing the mission reliability of UAVs and Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs) operating in hazardous and high-threat environments. The technology provides for real-time autonomous accommodation of damage, followed by an adaptation process that alters the flight control system to compensate for the effects of the damage. During the flight test, Athena demonstrated a capability that could be applicable to all military aircraft operating in combat environments. The technology is also relevant to any vehicle, manned or unmanned, including civilian aircraft, that might sustain physical damage or failures that impact controlled flight.

Athena tells ANN the demonstration highlights the challenge and importance of the ability to autonomously land an air vehicle that has sustained damage. This powerful capability can potentially save the military the significant expense of lost UAVs and better protect US proprietary technology.

More importantly, when applied to manned aircraft... the combined technology solution could just save lives. 

FMI: www.athenati.com