Arcturus T- 20, USA - Unmanned Air Vehicle (uav)
- 1. ARCTURUS T-20, USA Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)
- 3. INTRODUCTION T-20 is a medium range tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system designed and manufactured in the US by Arcturus-UAV for the United States Armed Forces. The system comprises two aerial vehicles, a ground control station (GCS), a portable launcher and a support trailer for payload and personnel. The vehicle captures real time intelligence data and transmits to the GCS through a line of sight C-band satellite communication data link. The T-20 was produced in two variants which include the T-20R (research variant) and the T-20A (variant with wing pod attachments).
- 5. DESIGN The T-20 is a high wing monoplane design made up of carbon fibre composite materials. It is a runway independent UAV designed to operate on dirt, desert, unprepared, grass and gravel roads. The 2.8m long and 5.2m wide aerial vehicle was designed to launch from a runway or mobile platforms such as ships through a pneumatic catapult launcher system and can be recovered either by belly landing or by net capturing. The T-20 carries a retractable gimbal-mounted, digitally stabilized, electro- optical/infrared (EO/IR) camera that relays video in real time via a C-band LOS data link to the ground control station (GCS).
- 7. FEATURES The Arcturus T-20 features a modular composite airframe, a large internal payload, a GPS bay, Iridium Satcom, target laser, 100L wing tank, 500W alternator, aluminum tail booms and two-bladed propeller at the nose section. Flying up to a maximum altitude of 15,000ft, the T-20 can provide its operators with real time intelligence data by carrying out surveillance and reconnaissance operations over a large area. It can execute intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions even in hostile environments. The retractable electro-optic camera incorporated beneath the centerline fuselage section renders a full 3600 unimpeded field of view and captures the imagery of the field it surveys.
- 9. NAVIGATION & GCS The T-20 can be controlled either manually from the GCS or through autonomous mode. It houses a GPS based Cloud Cap Piccolo II autopilot with waypoint navigation which receives multiple flight plans from the control station for landing automatically on the specified location. The T-20 is equipped with electro-optic (EO) and infra-red (IR) sensors and electronic intelligence sensors (ELINT, COMINT). The Arcturus T-20 is powered by a single fuel injected 190cc four stroke Honda engine rated at 7.5kW of output power. The GCS can process, retrieve, store and monitor the information transferred by the aircraft to control the Piccolo II autopilot and manage its payloads. It can be easily configured for autopilot missions.
- 11. SPECIFICATIONS General characteristics Length: 9.4 ft. in (2.8 m) Wingspan: 17.2 ft. in (5.2 m) Height: 3.0 ft. in (1 m) Empty weight: 110 lb. (50 kg) Gross weight: 175 lb. (79 kg) Power plant: 1 × 1 Aviation Gasoline Avgas 110 LL 4 stroke internal combustion, 10 hp (7.5 kW) each Performance Maximum speed: 104 mph (167 km/h) Range: 55 LOS miles (89 km) Endurance: 16 hours Service ceiling: 23,500 ft. (7,162 m)
- 12. REFERENCES http://www.arcturus-uav.com/docs/Arcturus-T20-SpecSheet.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcturus_T-20 http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/arcturus-t-20-unmanned- aerial-vehicle/ http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=911
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