Boeing A160 Hummingbird

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The A160 during ground runs at the Victorville, CA airport
The A160 during ground runs at the Victorville, CA airport

The Boeing A160 Hummingbird is a UAV helicopter. Its design incorporates many new technologies never before used in helicopters, allowing for greater endurance and altitude than any helicopter currently in operation.

The Hummingbird was developed by Frontier Aircraft. In May 2004, the company was acquired by Boeing[1] and integrated into Boeing Phantom Works and then into the Advanced Systems group of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems.

The A160 is in development as of 2008, but test flights already demonstrate successively greater endurance, higher altitudes, more extensive autonomy, and greater payload. The prototypes have already broken many world records for helicopter flight as the program moves towards the ambitious goals of a 2500-mile range, 24-hour endurance, and 30,000 ft altitude. Flights are largely autonomous, with the aircraft making its own decisions about how to fly itself so as to meet certain objectives, rather than relying on real-time human control. Maximum speeds are over 140 knots. The aircraft is 35 feet from nose to tail and has a rotor diameter of 36 feet.[2] Until recently it was powered by modified Subaru automotive engines, but newer versions fly with the Pratt & Whitney PW207D turboshaft.[3]

Contents

[edit] Design and development

Frontier Aircraft, and then Boeing, have carried out the A160 program as part of a series of contracts with DARPA, the US Army, and the US Navy. [4][5]

In September 2003, DARPA awarded Frontier a $75 million contract for the design, development and testing of four A160s.

In May 2004, the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command awarded Syracuse Research Corp. a $13.3 million contract for the ultra high frequency, foliage penetrating, real-time moving target indicator/synthetic aperture radar for use in the A160.

The A160's rotor includes rotors whose stiffness and cross-section vary along their length. Their low loading and rigid, hingeless design allows for changing RPM (not just blade pitch as in conventional helicopters) to optimize efficiency at different speeds and altitudes. It is primarily because of these features that the Hummingbird can fly with less power - and thus use less fuel - than comparable helicopters.

In August 2005, Frontier Systems - by then a Boeing subsidiary - received a $50 million contract from the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division "to assess the military utility and affordability of a long-range VTOL UAV employing a wide variety of adaptable payloads".

In October of 2007, DARPA awards Boeing a $6.3 million contract to deliver an A160T aircraft and modified pod for the Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance-Imaging System (ARGUS-IS) program.

[edit] Renegade UAV and Maverick UAV

Frontier Systems used a modified Robinson R22 helicopter to develop and test the flight control systems that would later be used to autonomously fly the Hummingbird. While the original aircraft was lost in an accident in 2000, unmanned R22s are still used by Boeing Phantom Works for flight-control software development.

March of 2006 saw the completion of the Software Enabled Control program sponsored by DARPA. With the help of researchers from UC Berkeley, MIT, and Georgia Tech, Boeing developed the Renegade UAV, which "successfully executed a series of advanced maneuvers: flying optimal routes through a field of pop-up and already-known threats; flying low-level, terrain-hugging profiles to avoid detection; and determining safe landing zones by using vision-based algorithms to process landing site imagery and terrain height information", without real-time human input.[6][7]

Boeing's modified unmanned R22 is marketed as the Maverick UAV. Four are flown by the US Navy, carrying Wescam Electro-Optical/Infrared sensor system, possibly among other sensors.[8]

Software developed for these programs has been implemented into the A160.

[edit] Flight testing

The test program is being operated from the Southern California Logistics Airport near Victorville, California.[9]

The Hummingbird made its first flight in January 2002,[10] using a 4-cylinder Subaru engine.[11]

On September 20, 2004, the Hummingbird made its first flight since Boeing took over the program the previous May. [12]

In August 2005, the Hummingbird was flown around Victorville in a 1200-mile course at 60 knots and 4000 feet. This was probably the longest helicopter flight ever. [13] Unfortunately, a mechanical failure caused the helicopter to crash near the end of the flight. Flight testing continued some months later after the crash investigation was concluded.

On November 30, 2005, the aircraft successfully completed its first flight with a new 290 kW (390 hp) 6-cylinder gasoline-powered piston engine, hovering about the airfield for about half an hour.[14]

A follow-up turboshaft-powered version, the A160T, was first flown in June of 2007[15].

On September 27, 2007, the A160T was flown for 8 hours while carrying a 1000-pound payload. On October 12, the aircraft flew for 12 hours while carrying a 500-pound payload, simulating a multi-sensor military recon mission. This latter flight used up less than 60% of the Hummingbird's maximum fuel load. As the next step, Boeing plans on flying simulated missions where a 300-pound payload is carried for 18 hours.[16]

On December 10, 2007, one of the A160T prototypes crashed during a flight test at Boeing Advanced Systems' test facility in Victorville. [17][18] A Boeing investigation determined the incident was caused when sensor data stopped being updated to the flight computer. With the feedback loop for the control system effectively cut, the helicopter "departed controlled flight and impacted the ground at a near-vertical angle." Much of the foresnic evidence was burned in the post-crash fire. A number of potential areas that could have caused the software feedback update thread to stop were found, and those known problem areas have been addressed. Flight testing resumed on March 26, 2008. [19]

On May 9, 2008, at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, the A160T demonstrated its ability to hover out of ground effect (HOGE) at 15,000 feet to meet its DARPA milestone. It then surpassed the milestone during the same flight by repeating the HOGE at 20,000 feet altitude, which is among the highest rotorcraft hovers on record. A week later starting the night of May 14, the A160T demonstrated its un-refueled endurance capabilities with an 18.7 hour flight, landing with over 90 minutes of fuel still on board. [20] It is unofficially the longest un-refueled flight of any rotorcraft. Boeing has applied for the FAI's official UAV endurance record in the 500 to 2,500kg weight class.

[edit] Specifications

General characteristics

  • Crew: 0
  • Length: 35 ft 0 in (10.7 m)
  • Main rotor diameter: 36 ft 0 in (11 m)
  • Empty weight: 2,500 lb (1,134 kg)
  • Gross weight: 6,500 lb (2,948 kg) each

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 160+ mph (258+ km/h)
  • Endurance: 20+ hours
  • Service ceiling: 20,000-30,000 ft (6,100-9,150 m)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Boeing Frontiers Online
  2. ^ Boeing A160 Hummingbird, designation-systems.net
  3. ^ Turbine A160T Flies 8 Hr, Rotor & Wing Magazine
  4. ^ A160 Hummingbird: Boeing’s Variable-Rotor VTUAV - Defense Industry Daily
  5. ^ Boeing A160 Hummingbird
  6. ^ Boeing Completes Successful Autonomous Flight Control Technology Program
  7. ^ Boeing: Boeing Team Demonstrates Advanced Autonomous Flight Control for UAVs
  8. ^ Boeing Maverick
  9. ^ "Test flight program advances for Boeing A160 Hummingbird unmanned aircraft", Aerotech News and Review, November 23, 2006
  10. ^ Hummingbird page, Boeing.
  11. ^ Boeing: Boeing A160 Hummingbird Completes Flight Test
  12. ^ Boeing: A160 Hummingbird Resumes Flight Testing as Boeing UAV
  13. ^ Postman Patel: UAV's, they should be code named ICARUS
  14. ^ Boeing A160 Hummingbird Completes Flight Test
  15. ^ Boeing: Boeing Completes First Flight of A160T Hummingbird Unmanned Helicopter
  16. ^ Boeing: Boeing Logs 12-hour A160T Hummingbird Flight
  17. ^ Aero-News Network: The Aviation and Aerospace World's Daily/Real-Time News and Information Service
  18. ^ Boeing A160T Hummingbird UAV crashes-11/12/2007-Washington DC-Flightglobal.com
  19. ^ "Rigid Rotors." Aviation Week and Space Technology.March 31, 2008. pp.48-51.
  20. ^ Boeing Flies A160T Hummingbird Unmanned Rotorcraft for 18 Hours

[edit] External links

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