Unmanned Systems Technology 003 | UAV Solutions Talon 120 | Cable harnesses | Austro Engine AE50R and AE300 | Autonomous mining | AUVSI 2015 show report | Transponders | Space systems

22 Summer 2015 | Unmanned Systems Technology Talon 120 specification Talon 120 Fixed-wing unmanned aerial system Wingspan: 12.5 ft Length: 6 ft Motor: brushless dc electric with separate speed controller Propeller: twin blade Fuselage: composite monocoque plus boom Landing gear: polyurethane belly pan Maximum gross take-off weight: 29 lb Vision system: EO/IR with 10x zoom and stabilised gimbal Comms control: 900 MHz Data/video link: 2.4 GHz The Talon 120 is an electrically propelled, 12.5 ft wingspan unmanned aircraft with autonomous capability. Its core is a boom that for robustness runs its entire length, from the motor driving the propeller back to the tailplane. This is essentially a hollow carbon fibre tube, which is headed by the (tubular) motor. The motor’s rotor shaft extends forward from the motor to carry the propeller (secured by a nut on the end). The hollow main boom is 1.5 in (38.1 mm) in diameter and 5 ft (1.524 m) long. It is produced by a subcontractor, which lays it up around a removable tubular mandrel using pre-preg carbon fibre. UAV Solutions machines holes and pockets to run connectors into and through it. “That tube supplied by the subcontractor is processed in our machine shop,” notes UAV Solutions’ CEO Bill Davidson, “so for us it isn’t conceptually different from buying an aluminium tube and machining that to create a part.” The top half of the fuselage is stepped when seen in side elevation, the boom running through the upward projection of it that also carries the wing. The fuselage extends back just far enough to carry the wing, with the boom alone carrying the tail assembly. At the front of the fuselage is a detachable payload housing made from polycarbonate, which is vacuum- formed in-house. This is secured to the fuselage by a pair of elastic bands, one on each side, and each tying a pin on the housing with a pin in the fuselage. There is also a pair of detent pins extending from the housing into the fuselage, for alignment. The overall aim was to make the Talon 120 tool-less, hence the use of the elastic bands and, elsewhere, thumb screws. On the base of the nose payload housing is a nylon mounting ring, to which the actual payload is attached. This mounting ring is 3D (AM) printed in-house. Also 3D printed in-house is the fuselage’s front bulkhead, with which the nose payload housing interfaces. This polycarbonate bulkhead is glued into the fuselage. Electrical connectors pass through it into the payload housing, providing power and an Ethernet connection for whatever payload is carried in the nose. The fuselage is produced in left- and right-hand sections, which are bonded together. The sections are formed from carbon fibre and Kevlar skins using wet lay-up and vacuum bagging with oven curing, all done in-house. They sandwich a total of four bulkheads, all of which – together with the main boom – are bonded into the structure. The bulkheads other than the front one are aircraft-grade plywood with aluminium inserts where wiring passes through them. Once bonded together, with its four bulkheads and the main boom integrated, the fuselage is essentially an empty shell. There are multiple aluminium inserts for mounting different components to it, such as the belly pan and the wing. Once assembled, there is a trimming process whereby access apertures are cut as necessary, for example for the battery compartment and the avionics pallet. It then goes for insert fitting, seam filling and painting. Once the fuselage is finished, the wiring harness is installed, then the avionics system is plugged in on one side, the battery on the other. The battery sits in the right-hand side of the fuselage, with the avionics system – including autopilot with voltage regulation and the control radio – in the left-hand side. The motor speed controller is also mounted on the left- hand side of the fuselage, while the tailplane control servos are in the rear of the main boom. The servos for the wing control surfaces are mounted on the wing itself. On the right-hand side, the battery compartment has a hatch that fits into an aperture in the side of the fuselage. The vacuum-formed polycarbonate hatch is mounted to an aluminium insert running around the edge of that aperture. It is attached to its aluminium insert via four thumb screws, in keeping with the tool- less theme. The hatch forms part of the outer sidewall of the fuselage. On the other side is the similar compartment for the ‘avionics pallet’. The aircraft-grade aluminium back of this pallet forms part of the fuselage sidewall, and acts as a heat sink for the control radio (it is a composite item with polymer on the inside). The externally mounted motor speed controller is located behind the avionics compartment and at the height of the motor. It slots into the 3D-printed nylon mount, which in turn is attached by two bolts into aluminium hard Anatomy of the Talon 120