DARPA/AeroVironment Broomstick UAV

AeroFranz

AeroFranz

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This UAV flew more than twenty years ago (with reasonable handling, I am told). If you are looking for the propulsion system, it's inside the really thick airfoil profile, and exhausts at the trailing edge. As far as i could ascertain, there is no info of it on the web, at least none that I could google using its informal nickname. I recently came across an AIAA paper with information on it, and I will post some more details after someoone guesses its identity.
I think it's a tough one, but if there is someone out there who can guess it right, then he or she is probably a member of this forum!

Good luck! ;)
 

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This is just SOOOO weird!

Can't even make out the exact shape of that thing, looks surprising it could handle properly for any length of time!

So this is a UAV from the 1980s... Nevada mounts in the background? I'll say "Teledyne Ryan" but honestly I have no idea what it could be...
 
DARPA/AeroVironment Broomstick
 
Ha ha! I knew I should have forbidden certain forum members from participating in the quiz ;)

The following is taken from an EXCELLENT AIAA paper by Mike Hirschberg, which i strongly recommend
"To Boldly Go Where No Unmanned Aircraft Has Gone Before: A Half-Century of DARPA’s Contributions to Unmanned Aircraft", which among other things details the early history of the ancestors of Predator (TEAL RAIN, Amber, Gnat, Albatross...).

Anyway, here's some more info:
"Broomstick, was developed in 1986 to explore the limits of airfoil design and straight-wing, high-lift, high aspect ratio aerodynamics. This demonstrator employed 50% thick airfoil sections with circulation control, using differential blowing to provide lift and control while also efficiently achieving a very lightweight, high aspect ratio wing structure."

"The first flight of the electric-powered demonstrator was in 1987, proving the feasibility of extremely thick airfoils and the ability to control a straight (0 degree sweep), all-wing planform. Initially, Broomstick used horizontal and vertical tails for stability mounted on a circular boom, approximately 4 ft long. First flight without the tailboom was in 1992, after standing down for a couple of years waiting for funding to develop the digital autopilot that stabilized the pitch axis. The angle-of- attack sensor was mounted on a “stick” at the rear of the aircraft; this fed into the autopilot. Putting it behind the wing kept the pitch rate from causing dynamic instabilities with a positive feedback loop into the autopilot, creating natural damping. Broomstick flew nominally around 15-20 mph"
 
AeroFranz said:
This UAV flew more than twenty years ago (with reasonable handling, I am told). If you are looking for the propulsion system, it's inside the really thick airfoil profile, and exhausts at the trailing edge. As far as i could ascertain, there is no info of it on the web, at least none that I could google using its informal nickname. I recently came across an AIAA paper with information on it, and I will post some more details after someoone guesses its identity.
I think it's a tough one, but if there is someone out there who can guess it right, then he or she is probably a member of this forum!

Good luck! ;)
Click to expand...

THAT is an Aerovironment creation ;) DAS BROOMSTICK!

EDIT: Teaches me to post before I read the whole thread!
http://avinc.com/uas/adc/broomstick/
 
I would love to see how this is packaged internally. I was thinking along the same lines for take off and landing of a high speed aircraft that would be a lifting fuselage. Put jet engines in one wingtip and a nose cone on the other and start flying along the longitudinal axis for high speed flight. I don't know if it would have the volume required for the fuel, payload, etc., not to mention transition could obviously be a problem.

I had no idea this existed. Very cool! Talk about a UFO sighting, if any vehicle could generate such reports, this is it. ;)
 
Here's a video where the second part shows the broomstick flying. Although, what I found interesting, is that it never gets out of ground effect during any of these flights. Does anyone know if it ever made it out of ground effect? The reason I ask is I wonder if it didn't have enough pitch authority to fly out of ground effect?

Aerovironment Test Video
 
I've just run across this and its fascinating. Does anyone have any more info? Any photos of it from different angles? The video of it flying is amazing but the quality is really bad. I think I am seeing blowing slots at the trailing edge at each wing tip. Presumably that is the source of thrust and yaw control(?). I assume that pitch and roll is handled by some form of circulation control on the centre section. Does anyone know what form that takes? I cant see any obvious air intakes large enough to provide the propulsion thrust. My assumption is that there are intake slots along the centre section that might be doing double duty as the circulation control. But the coupling of that action and the provision of air for thrust and yaw control is baffling!

So does anyone have any sources for some more info?

Cheers
 

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