CHAPTER 1

VULTURE- THE UNMANNED AIRCRAFT BY NASA

1. Introduction

Vulture is the aircraft that has been designed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency also known as DARPA located in United States. This aircraft is the latest invention in
the field of technology in the world. What is unique about this aircraft is that it will be the first
aircraft that will fly in the air but will not be manned. VULTURE will have a unique technology
that will work like a persistently like a satellite. There are reports from DARPA that this new
aircraft will be one of its kind that will be equipped with the special ability of staying up in the
sky without any human being inside it and will continue to provide information and
communicate for a term as long as five years.

This project holds a lot of hope for NASA as they are looking forward to getting hold of a
number of analysis with the help of VULTURE. Though it will function like a satellite, this
aircraft will not be operated by the orbital mechanics that are used for the operation of other
satellites. Vulture has been termed Pseudo- satellite as it will not operate in orbit of Earth but
will be in the stratosphere. This will increase the ability and clarity of communication between
the aircraft and the operators. The sensor resolution onboard will also be clear in this way.

The man who is managing this valuable project is Daniel Newman. He said in an interview
regarding Vulture that they want to come out of the fixed notion and picture of any aircraft that
everyone has in their minds. The field of aviation has a record that will be soon broken by this
new creation. It is time to look forward for the latest aircraft that is sure to amuse everyone.

1.1 Concept Behind Vulture:

Basically aircrafts operates just like satellites, but the major differences is that these are not
regulated by orbital mechanics. You can understand Vulture as a Pseudo-Satellite, which
operates in the stratosphere and not in the low Earth Orbit. This would provide a 65 dB
upgrading in communications capability and will increase onboard sensor resolution.
1.2 Daniel Newman: The Man Behind VULTURE:

Daniel Newman is the Project Manager of this ambitious project of NASA. In his words: ‘We
want to completely change the paradigm of how we think of aircraft. Aviation has a perfect
record- we’ve never left one up there. We will attempt to break that record”. It looks that its time
to get out of the traditional ‘launch-recover-maintain-launch cycle of aircrafts.’

1.2.1 Bio

Mr. Dan Newman arrived at DARPA in June 2006 as a Program Manager for the Tactical
Technology Office. Newman came to DARPA from The Boeing Company, where he served as a
Boeing Technical Fellow in V/STOL Aircraft Configuration Development. His responsibilities
centered on leading advanced technology definition, development and demonstration efforts in
aircraft survivability, supportability and airspace integration`. His assignments included technical
and program leadership of the Joint Heavy Lift/Joint Future Theater Lift effort, and design
responsibility for several proprietary system development efforts. Newman also served as
Manager of Preliminary Design, and in various technical leadership roles on the U.S. Army
RAH-66 Comanche development effort, including configuration designer and Full Scale RCS
Model Lead.

Mr. Newman has been an Adjunct Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics
at the University of Pennsylvania, the Deputy Director for Vehicle Design for the American
Helicopter Society/AHS International, and has served on the National Transportation Research
Board.

Mr. Newman received a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Cornell University,
and a Master of Science in aerospace engineering from the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center of
Excellence at the University of Maryland.

The objective of the Vulture program is to develop and demonstrate the technology to enable an
airborne payload to remain on-station uninterrupted for over five years performing intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), and communication missions over an area of interest.
The system has potential in numerous roles: operation as a single platform, as a formation of
multiple aircraft, or as a constellation providing infrastructure augmentation or recovery. Vulture
technology enables a re-taskable, persistent pseudo-satellite capability, in an aircraft package.
The technology combines the key benefits of an aircraft (flexibility & responsiveness, sensor
resolution, reduced transmit/receive power, affordability) with the benefits of space assets (on-
station persistence, no logistics tail, energy independence, fleet size, absence of in-country
footprint). The technology challenges include developing energy management and reliability
technologies capable of allowing the aircraft to operate continuously for five years. The Vulture
program will conduct subscale and full-scale technology maturation and demonstration activities
to prove out critical technologies.