Smiths Aerospace Supplies Power & Fuel Systems for X-45A UCAV.Business Editors FARNBOROUGH, U.K.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 22, 2002 Smiths Aerospace supplies the solid-state power distribution and fuel gauging systems for the Boeing X-45A UCAV UCAV Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle UCAV Uninhabited Combat Air Vehicle UCAV Uninhabited Combat Aerial Vehicle (unmanned combat air vehicle The Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) or "combat drones" is the name of a new class of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). They differ from ordinary UAVs, because they are designed to deliver weapons (attack targets) – possibly with a great degree of autonomy. ). John Ferrie, Smiths Aerospace Group Managing Director, notes: "We are excited to take part in UCAV by providing proven systems and look forward to playing an even greater role as the development continues." Development of the systems has commenced and is installed on the UCAV X-45A aircraft. The Boeing Company is developing UCAVs to provide the U.S. Department of Defense with a robust suppression of enemy air defense and deep strike capability. The X-45A demonstrator aircraft has begun flight testing, and Boeing, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), U.S. government agency administered by the Department of Defense (see Defense, United States Department of). and the Air Force are currently defining the larger X-45B aircraft. Notes to editors: Power distribution system The power distribution unit (PDU (Protocol Data Unit) The technical name of a frame of data transmitted over the data link layer (layer 2) in a communications network. Ethernet and Token Ring are examples of this layer. ) controls more the 100 loads on the air vehicle ranging from 7.5 to 30 amps at 28 VDC VDC Volts Direct Current VDC Venture Development Corporation VDC Vehicle Dynamic Control VDC Village Development Committee (Nepal) VDC Virtual Data Center VdC Verband der Cigarettenindustrie and 145 VDC. It provides wire protection and self-protection under all loads and overload conditions including short circuit. The unit can be used as a central collector of load health maintenance data as it monitors currents in all loads on the air vehicle. The PDU utilizes second-generation solid-state power control that eliminates the need for power control hybrids. This new architecture provides significantly better thermal performance, flexible configuration and customization over other systems. Fuel gauging system & remote interface unit Smiths fuel-gauging system consists of smart capacitance fuel probes and an intrinsic safety barrier. The probes are connected to Smiths remote interface unit (RIU RIU Regulatory Impact Unit (United Kingdom) RIU Remote Interface Unit RIU Radio Interface Unit RIU Refractive Index Unit RIU Remux Interface Unit RIU Radar/Remote Interface Unit RIU Riverine Interdiction Unit ), which reads the frequency of the returned signals and computes the fuel height. The smart capacitance fuel probes provide a digital signal. The signal takes the form of a square wave, where the time period of the waveform varies in response to changes in capacitance, and hence is proportional to fuel height. The Intrinsic safety barrier provides the necessary drive signal to the probe and ensures that the energy and current within the tank are kept within safe levels, even if a failure occurs external to the tank. Since the signal is a time domain signal, rather than a voltage level signal, the probe can operate in an environment with high EMC (1) (EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, www.emc.com) The leading supplier of storage products for midrange computers and mainframes. Founded in 1979 by Richard J. Egan and Roger Marino, EMC has developed advanced storage and retrieval technologies for the world's largest companies. levels with no degradation of performance - it has been qualified to operate in 200V/m fields. About UCAV With the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Department of the Navy, the Boeing Phantom Works The Phantom Works division is the main research and development arm of The Boeing Company. Founded by McDonnell Douglas before the merger with Boeing, its primary focus had been development of advanced military products and technologies. is developing an Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) to provide the Navy with a robust surveillance, suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD SEAD Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses SEAD Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (Salzburg, Austria) SEAD Secure Efficient Ad-Hoc Distance Vector (routing protocol) SEAD Seneca Army Depot ) and deep strike system that has low acquisition, operations and support costs. Called the UCAV-N UCAV-N Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle - Navy , the system consists of an air vehicle, mission control station and support elements. This system is being designed to operate in the demanding aircraft-carrier environment, requiring 50 percent less space than manned aircraft and functioning with minimal input from a ship-based operator. About Smiths Aerospace Smiths Aerospace is the leading transatlantic aerospace equipment company, with half its 12,000 staff and $2 billion revenues in North America. Smiths Aerospace, a part of Smiths Group plc, holds key positions in the supply chains of all major military and civil aircraft and engine manufacturers and is a world-leader in electronic systems, actuation systems, precision components and detection systems. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion