Surveillance: Skycam shows Skyclops | ADM Jun 2010

1 June 2010

‘If you trained a bird and hung sensors from it, it would be perfect, but birds are hard to train,' says Lew Woods, director of Skycam UAV NZ Limited, revealing the company's latest aircraft to ADM.

Nick Lee-Frampton | Wellington

The new platform, Skyclops, is designed to extend the performance and capability envelope established by the Kahu UAV.

Developed by the Defence Technology Agency (DTA) and produced and maintained by Skycam from their base in Palmerston North, Kahu has been flying with the NZ Army battle lab for some three years.

While providing a more sophisticated and versatile sensor suite than its predecessor, Skyclops is expected to have up to three times the endurance and to cruise around 10kts faster than Kahu.

If a petrol engine was used to power Skyclops then endurance could be extended to eight or 10 hours, Woods believes.

With electric power the UAV is expected to have up to three hours endurance.

Various configurations of Skyclops are being trialled, including wings of various aspect ratios.

The latest, the third iteration of Skyclops weighs 6.3kg and features a 3.1m span, high aspect ratio, sweptback "flying wing," complete with winglets.

This configuration reduces both wing loading and induced drag, Woods told ADM.

Because of its aerodynamic efficiency, the Kahu wing profile is used for the outer span of Skyclops.

Skyclops also retains Kahu's motor and propeller, but the slightly wider fuselage contains more batteries in addition to extra sensors.

Skycam is considering various methods of retrieving Skyclops after a mission.

Skyclops will approach upwind and the line will slide down the leading edge of the swept wing and be captured by a hook at the wing tip.

If it misses the line Skyclops will go around again for another attempt.

The engine shuts down automatically once the line is captured so Skyclops only makes about half a circuit around the line before stopping.

However, different methods of retrieving Skyclops are still being investigated.

"We still haven't divorced the net capture and the DTA have been working on an ILS approach, as a backup to GPS," said Woods.

"NZ is a hard area for UAVs, with a constant wind of 15-20kts.

"We were at [NZ Army training area] Waiouru with Kahu when the Singaporeans where here with their UAV earlier this year.

"They had to stop flying at 10kts because it was their wind limit, but we carried on and were still launching and flying Kahu in winds of 20kts.

"We have flown in 30kt winds.

"A UAV that flies successfully in NZ will fly anywhere," claims Woods.

"Once our UAVs are heat-treated they will be able to operate successfully in hot desert areas.'