Landmark in Unmanned Vehicle Flight

T-Hawk Smaller and Has Better Flight Envelope

Honeywell received a $65 million contract from the U.S. Navy to deliver 90 micro air vehicles known as the T-Hawk “Eye-in-the-Sky” systems for use in battleground conditions.  The 17-pound vehicles measuring 14 inches in diameter are portable enough to be carried in backpacks and relay real time video surveillance data back to the operators for more than 40 minutes.

The Honeywell T-Hawk in flight. It flies for 40 minutes at altitudes ranging from inches off the ground to 7,000 feet. Weight: 17 lbs. Diameter: 14 inches

The announcement made on Tuesday marks a new era in both unmanned aerial vehicle technology and micro air vehicles.  The better known and much larger Predator and Global Hawk have payload capacities of 700 and 1,960 lbs. respectively.  Although a vehicle known as the Pointer has a total takeoff weight of only 8.5 lbs., it has a maximum altitude of only 3,000 feet.    The T-Hawk can fly as high as 7,000 feet or more.

Another distinguishing feature of the T-Hawk system is its ducted-fan propulsion consisting of a fan or propeller within a cylindrical shroud much like a jet engine.  The system is capable of vertical takeoff and landings in virtually any terrain from desert to urban settings without need for a helipad or runway and can hover like a helicopter only a few inches off the ground if required.

Ducted air systems are highly efficient, because they operate at higher rotational speeds than an unshrouded propeller blade.  This advantage produces more thrust and allows for a smaller diameter than a free propeller.  The ducted fan is also quieter and allows for vertical take off and hovering capacity.

The system has already seen action in Iraq, the first combat use of a ducted-fan unmanned vehicle, and is credited with identifying enemy threats.  Each of the 90 systems includes two T-Hawk aerial units, a ground control unit and spare parts.  Training for operators, maintainers and in-field support are reported by Honeywell to be “minimal.”

The aerial units can be equipped with day cameras or optional infrared cameras for night missions. T-Hawk operators have the ability to guide the craft manually or set a pre-programmed flight path.

The Miami Dade Police Department is currently evaluating the T-Hawk for law enforcement applications, but no one was available for comment prior to publication regarding the precise situations in which a T-Hawk might be deployed in a populated urban area in which a catastrophic failure of the vehicle might be dangerous to innocent people.

In any case, it’s highly probably this compact and easy-to-use technology will eventually find its way into civilian applications.  It’s not unimaginable that news organizations might deploy the system to cover breaking news or even for routine traffic reports.  The economics would certainly seem to favor the T-Hawk over a traditional helicopter crew and could be distributed over a far broader area.