Friday Films: Drone Anti--Submarine Helicopter (DASH) and the WWII TDR-1 Drone Torpedo Bomber

Before the U.S. Navy stopped this program, it provided small ships like destroyers with a stand-off ASW weapon. 160 ships underwent a modernization

program to allow them to carry DASH.

As you can see, DASH was not a big aircraft, and its counter-rotating rotors eliminated the need for a vertical tale rotor to stop it from spinning like a top . . .

More about DASH from its manufacturer, Gyrodyne from which the above photo was liberated with a hat tip. The DASH history is of particular interest.



As noted a couple of years ago here, such aircraft are not a new idea, though the electronics have improved considerably.

Background of the TDR Drone.

Drone war payback? "Mystery ‘drone’ plane spotted near JFK"

Not the "drone" in question, but a design from Clemson U.

Could bad guys build a "remotely piloted aircraft" capable of interfering with flight patterns at major airports?

For those of you following al Qaeda's system of asymmetric warfare, you've got to wonder if this is a AQ "proof of concept" of a possible UAV attack when you see a headline like this one from the NY Post, "Mystery ‘drone’ plane spotted near JFK":

The pilot told investigators the object was flying at about 1,800 feet and looked like “a black drone about a meter square, with helicopter rotors on the corners.”

You might as well ask how such an attack might work. Well, a goose can bring down an airplane:

Bird strikes, or the collision of an aircraft with an airborne bird, tend to happen when aircraft are close to the ground, which means just before landing or after take-off, when jet engines are turning at top speeds.

The incidents are serious particularly when the birds, usually gulls, raptors and geese, are sucked into a jet engine and strike an engine fan blade. That impact displaces the blade such that it strikes another blade and a cascade can occur, resulting in engine failure.

You can take the concept from there.

You'll be pleased to note that "The Joint Terror Task Force is now probing the sighting of the mysterious flying object . . ."

Of course, it might just be some amateur out playing with his new toy.

Could you build a four rotor flying thingie? Heck, you can buy a small one here for about $100:

Maritime Security: Robo Marine Security Helicopters - Testing Against Pirates

ONR image

Another tool in the maritime security kit- if it works - as set out in this Office of Naval Research press release, "Pirates, Beware: Navy’s Smart Robocopters Will Spy You in the Crowd":

Navy unmanned aircraft will be able to distinguish small pirate boats from other vessels when an Office of Naval Research (ONR)-funded sensor starts airborne tests this summer, officials said April 5.

Fire Scout UVAS

Called the Multi-Mode Sensor Seeker (MMSS), the sensor is a mix of high-definition cameras, mid-wave infrared sensors and laser-radar (LADAR) technology. It will be placed on a robotic helicopter called Fire Scout. Carrying advanced automatic target recognition software, the sensor prototype will allow Fire Scout to autonomously identify small boats on the water, reducing the workload of Sailors operating it from control stations aboard Navy ships.

“Sailors who control robotic systems can become overloaded with data, often sifting through hours of streaming video searching for a single ship,” said Ken Heeke, program officer in ONR’s Naval Air Warfare and Weapons Department. “The automatic target recognition software gives Fire Scout the ability to distinguish target boats in congested coastal waters using LADAR, and it sends that information to human operators, who can then analyze those vessels in a 3-D picture.”

Navy-developed target recognition algorithms aboard Fire Scout will exploit the 3-D data collected by the LADAR, utilizing a long-range, high-res, eye-safe laser. The software compares the 3-D imagery to vessel templates or schematics stored in the system’s memory.

“The 3-D data gives you a leg up on target identification,” said Dean Cook, principal investigator for the MMSS program at Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD). “Infrared and visible cameras produce 2-D pictures, and objects in them can be difficult to automatically identify. With LADAR data, each pixel corresponds to a 3-D point in space, so the automatic target recognition algorithm can calculate the dimensions of an object and compare them to those in a database.”

The algorithms have been successfully tested in shore-based systems against vessels at sea. The software is being integrated into a BRITE Star II turret by a team from NAWCWD, Raytheon, FLIR Systems, BAE Systems and Utah State University for airborne testing aboard a manned test helicopter. The flight assessment will be conducted against groups of approximately seven small boats in a military sea range off the California coast later this summer.

Sounds cool. Hope it works in the real world.