UAV's and the Circular Wing Project

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle's are becomming a great asset to the military, however they are also a great asset to commercial field work as well. The Circular Wing is such a UAV which carries an instrumentation pod above an area under evaluation. Aerial Photography, Thermographics, Laser Topography, and General Surveying are but a few fields in which the Circular Wing is suitable. Unlike other UAV's the Circular Wing is designed to stay in one place as a Low Earth Orbit Satellite or LEO.

UAV's started out as Remote Controlled Airplanes with sensors and transmitters. Now they are full sized long range aircraft with wingspans up to that of a Boeing 737. The Global Hawk by Lockheed Martin, is an excellent example of a long range UAV

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Shorter range UAV's such as the Pioneer and Darkstar lead to the Long Range system of the Global Hawk. The successful use of ComSEC and IPSEC secured communications allows these unmanned craft to be controlled from around the world. Some can even carry and fire munitions in a military roll as seen with the Predator below.

With the unveiling of the Bird of Prey from Boeing and the X45 program we are seeing even more radical methods of daytime camoflage. The Circular Wing also employees the technology of WWII Yahootie project by matching luminance of the sky to the visual under-belly of the craft. Again this would be for a military roll.