IARPA Contracting for Quiet Surveillance Drone
July 19th, 2012Via: Aviation Week:
Now small firm D-Star Engineering has received what appears to be the first contract (for $4.8 million) awarded under the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (IARPA) Great Horned Owl (GHO) program to develop a new class of quiet small unmanned aircraft.
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Sound is the number one signature that gives away the presence and location of small UAVs, says IARPA, and Phase 1 of GHO is focused on reducing the noise produced by power sources and propulsors. A separately competed Phase 2 will build the technology into a flight vehicle.
Although battery-powered UAVs are quiet, they don’t have the payload or endurance required, IARPA says, so GHO is focused on hybrid turbine-electric propulsion systems that run on readily available automotive fuels – gasoline or diesel. The idea is to turn fuel into electricity and electricity into thrust.
