The Project Office for Unmanned Aircraft Systems yesterday said it began damage tolerance testing on the RQ-7B Shadow Unmanned Aircraft System Oct. 1 at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.
Teaming with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), PM UAS hopes that a successful outcome from seeded fault testing–intentionally introduces problems into the system–will further FAA confidence toward allowing Tactical UAS (TUAS) such as AAI Corp.’s [TXT] Shadow to fly in national airspace.
These flight capabilities have been demonstrated and flight tested on a subscale F-18 demonstrator aircraft at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. The tests involved intentionally expelling parts of the wing and in one case one entire wing. The aircraft was able to maintain stability in the air and land safely.
The purpose of the RQ-7B phase of the Developmental Test Program is to demonstrate these capabilities can be successfully transferred to an operation Defense Department platform, the office said in a statement.
Various phases of flight testing are scheduled for this demonstration, including validation of avionics modifications, adaptive controls solution to regain control authority and conduct an autonomous GPS landing, recovery from rudder failure and successful landing of the aircraft, and recovery from a hard-over aileron failure followed by autonomous landing, the office said.
Currently, the TUAS program is only authorized to fly in restricted airspace in Continental United States operations.
The FAA gave approval Aug. 19 for a safety case on the Ground Based Sense and Avoid System, marking the first time the DoD gained approval for use of sense-and-avoid technology in flying a UAS in national airspace (Defense Daily, Sept. 3).