Unmanned Systems Technology 005 | Selex ES Falco UAV | Sense and avoid systems | RCV Engines DF70 | DSEI show report | Fuel cells | CUAV Expo, InterDrone and CUAV Show reports | SLAM

loop on board the craft. For example, a manned aircraft, certified according to CS-23 or FAR-23, can be designed such that if a key control electronic servo fails then the pilot can take over operation through manual action. There is no such straightforward ‘redundancy’ option for an unmanned craft. Considerable effort thus went into the development and optimisation of the automatic flight control system, which was built incrementally from the lower CSAS (Control Stability and Augmentation System) to the upper fully autonomous autopilot, using state-of- the-art control design tools and flight simulation techniques. There were also actual flight trials expressly designed to test the aircraft’s handling qualities. The Falco’s control laws are scheduled and controlled by its flight management system according to the current flight phase and the pilot’s inputs. There is a high level of autonomous failure management in both manual control modes and fully automatic flight. Concept The initial design of the Falco involved studying a wide range of aerodynamic architectures, some conventional, others unconventional. This phase embraced evaluation of a ‘box wing’ concept and an all-wing configuration. It was discovered that there wasn’t a great difference in key flight The Falco’s flight laws are scheduled and controlled by its flight management system according to the current flight phase and the pilot’s inputs