While much of the nascent civilian unmanned aircraft industry looks at ways to optimize small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for specific tasks such facility security, infrastructure inspection, or precision agriculture, a New Mexico-based aerospace startup is thinking bigger and longer-term。
眼下，當(dāng)尚處襁褓中的民用無人機(jī)行業(yè)還在設(shè)法優(yōu)化小型無人機(jī)(UAS)，以執(zhí)行設(shè)備安保、基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施監(jiān)控或精準(zhǔn)農(nóng)業(yè)之類的特定任務(wù)時(shí)，一家位于美國(guó)新墨西哥州的航空初創(chuàng)企業(yè)卻已經(jīng)有了更宏大、更長(zhǎng)期的規(guī)劃。
Titan Aerospace, a one-year-old venture-backed aircraft designer, last week unveiled its Solara 50 and Solara 60 unmanned aircraft. These are two massive solar-powered, high-altitude vehicles the company plans to send aloft for weeks, months, and eventually years at a time without ever having to land。
這家公司名叫“泰坦航空”(Titan Aerospace)，是一家成立僅有一年、已獲風(fēng)投注資的航空器設(shè)計(jì)公司。它上周推出了兩款無人機(jī)：Solara 50 和Solara 60。這是兩架碩大無朋、靠太陽能驅(qū)動(dòng)的高空飛機(jī)，這家公司計(jì)劃讓它們一次性升空后在空中巡航數(shù)周、數(shù)月直至數(shù)年，中途完全無須降落。
Titan doesn't refer to these concept aircraft as "drones" or by the industry-preferred "unmanned aerial system," but instead calls them "atmospheric satellites" for their ability to remain aloft for extended periods of time just as orbital satellites do. The company hopes to provide a sub-$2 million platform that governments, private industry, and research institutions can put high into the atmosphere for extended periods of time for a fraction of the cost of a space satellite。
泰坦并沒有把這些概念機(jī)叫“遙控?zé)o人機(jī)”(drone)，也不用這個(gè)行業(yè)所習(xí)稱的“無人機(jī)系統(tǒng)”，而是叫它們“大氣層衛(wèi)星”。因?yàn)樗鼈兙拖褴壍佬l(wèi)星一樣，能在空中長(zhǎng)時(shí)間巡航逗留。這家公司希望將這個(gè)售價(jià)不到200萬美元的平臺(tái)賣給政府、私營(yíng)企業(yè)和研究機(jī)構(gòu)，讓它們只需付出衛(wèi)星成本的九牛一毛，就能在大氣層擁有自己的航天器。
The idea is that an atmospheric satellite can conduct most of the same operations as an orbital one: atmospheric observation and weather monitoring, communications relay, oceanographic research, and earth imaging. Other operations are impractical for space satellites, such as border security, maritime traffic monitoring and anti-piracy operations, disaster response, or agricultural observation. And with continuous flight time of up to five years, Solara's aircraft would have endurance on par with many small satellites, making them a more attractive option for a range of these applications (not to mention that if a sensor or instrument goes down, you can land and relaunch)。
這家公司的理念是，這樣一臺(tái)大氣層衛(wèi)星就能執(zhí)行軌道衛(wèi)星的絕大多數(shù)任務(wù)：大氣觀測(cè)和天氣監(jiān)測(cè)，通訊轉(zhuǎn)播，海洋研究和地球成像。而它所能完成的其他任務(wù)則是空間衛(wèi)星無能為力的，比如邊境安保、海上交通監(jiān)控，打擊海盜行動(dòng)，災(zāi)害響應(yīng)以及農(nóng)業(yè)觀測(cè)。另外，Solara的續(xù)航時(shí)間長(zhǎng)達(dá)五年，使用壽命和很多小型衛(wèi)星不相上下，使它們對(duì)上述應(yīng)用來說成了一個(gè)更具吸引力的選擇(更別提如果傳感器或是儀表壞了，還能讓它們降落，然后重新發(fā)射升空)。
"If you have to go up to the satellite and rent that service, that's a lot of money," says Dustin Sanders, Titan's chief electrical engineer. "And launching a satellite, that can be in the billions of dollars. We're trying to do a single-million-dollar-per-aircraft platform. And the operation cost is almost nothing -- you're paying some dude to watch the payload and make sure the aircraft doesn't do anything stupid."
泰坦首席電氣工程師達(dá)斯汀•桑德斯說：“租用衛(wèi)星服務(wù)要耗費(fèi)巨資。發(fā)射衛(wèi)星也會(huì)耗資數(shù)十億美元。而我們要開發(fā)的是每臺(tái)航空器僅百萬美元級(jí)的平臺(tái)，而且這個(gè)平臺(tái)的運(yùn)營(yíng)成本幾乎為零——只需要花不多的錢就能了解實(shí)際載荷情況，確保這臺(tái)無人機(jī)不會(huì)出問題。”
Other long-endurance solar UAS concepts -- including Aerovironment's (AVAV) Global Observer and QinetiQ's Zephyr, a demonstrator for a Boeing (BA) concept -- have had little success in generating the kind of long-term atmospheric satellite Titan envisions, but the company's engineers think they've worked around some of the thornier problems that have grounded previous efforts. For one, 160-foot-plus wingspans of the Solara 50 and Solara 60 will be covered edge-to-edge with advanced solar cell technology that will provide enough energy for both day and night flight (batteries will store power during the day for use at night) with enough left over to power up to 70 pounds of sensors and instruments。
而其他長(zhǎng)航太陽能概念無人機(jī)——包括航空環(huán)境公司(Aerovironment)的“全球觀察者”(Global Observer)和奎奈蒂克公司(一家英國(guó)國(guó)防科技公司——譯注)為波音公司(Boeing)開發(fā)的展示概念機(jī)“西風(fēng)”(Zephyr)——都沒能造出泰坦設(shè)想的長(zhǎng)壽命大氣層衛(wèi)星，但泰坦的工程師認(rèn)為他們已經(jīng)基于以前的努力解決了一些棘手問題。比如，Solara 50和Solara 60翼展長(zhǎng)達(dá)160多英尺的機(jī)翼上密集覆蓋著先進(jìn)的太陽能電池板，它們提供的電力不僅足夠白天黑夜飛行所用(電池白天存儲(chǔ)電力供晚上用)，還足以供重達(dá)70磅的傳感器和儀器使用。
But perhaps the most important part of the formula is not how it will fly, but where. To sustain such long flight durations, the aircraft will operate in an atmospheric sweet spot known as the tropopause, a zone at roughly 65,000 feet (or more than 12 miles) above sea level where winds are generally less than 5 knots. In this relative calm far above any turbulence or weather that would otherwise challenge its flight capabilities, Solara could linger for up to five years, Titan engineers say. It doesn't hurt that the tropopause resides far above the weather that can damage conventional aircraft or, more critically for Solara, block out the sun。
不過最關(guān)鍵的也許不是它的飛行方式，而是它到底在何處飛。為了維持這么長(zhǎng)的飛行時(shí)間，這種飛行器將在大氣層的最佳位置即所謂的對(duì)流層頂飛行。這個(gè)區(qū)域距海平面約65,000英尺(即12英里多)，風(fēng)速通常小于5節(jié)。泰坦的工程師稱，這個(gè)空域相對(duì)平靜，且遠(yuǎn)高于湍流或其他會(huì)影響其飛行性能的惡劣天氣，Solara可以在其中飛上五年之久。對(duì)流層頂下的天氣會(huì)損壞普通飛行器，對(duì)Solara來說更關(guān)鍵的還在于，它會(huì)遮蔽太陽，因此在遠(yuǎn)高于這種天氣的對(duì)流層頂飛行Solara就不易損壞。
With rather simple mechanical systems and enough solar power to run them indefinitely, the thing limiting flight duration right now is the batteries themselves, Titan engineers say, which deteriorate over time and must be swapped out every few years. To prove it, the company has two fifth-scale test aircraft currently conducting test flights and -- pending a round of Series B funding -- will have a full-sized prototype in the air by spring or summer of next year。
泰坦的工程師稱，由于這種飛行器機(jī)械結(jié)構(gòu)簡(jiǎn)單，同時(shí)還有足夠的太陽能驅(qū)動(dòng)它長(zhǎng)期運(yùn)行，因此現(xiàn)在限制飛行時(shí)長(zhǎng)的因素就只有電池了。而電池會(huì)隨著時(shí)間推移而逐漸老化，每隔幾年就必須更換。為了論證這個(gè)問題，公司現(xiàn)在用兩架五分之一大小的試驗(yàn)機(jī)進(jìn)行試飛——同時(shí)推遲了B輪融資——到明年春季或夏季時(shí)才會(huì)讓全尺寸機(jī)型上天。
By the time the company delivers its first aircraft -- which could happen as soon as the end of next year -- solar cell and battery technology may have improved such that the aircraft can extend their flight durations or carry even more payload, Sanders says. "We're focusing on the simplest, most lightweight solution for this and trying not to get overly complicated," he says. "That's really the key to keeping this thing affordable as well as to enable it to stay up there for years."
桑德斯表示，到公司交付首架飛機(jī)時(shí)——最快要到明年年底——太陽能板和電池技術(shù)也許已大幅提高，可讓飛機(jī)飛行時(shí)間更長(zhǎng)或攜帶更大載荷。他說：“我們正為了這個(gè)目標(biāo)致力于開發(fā)最簡(jiǎn)單、最輕量化的解決方案，同時(shí)努力避免過分復(fù)雜化。這才是讓這款無人機(jī)物美價(jià)廉、同時(shí)能夠不間斷飛行數(shù)年的關(guān)鍵所在。”
Of course much of Titan's success, at least in the U.S., hinges on the FAA clearing the aircraft to fly in the national airspace. While rules governing UAS integration into the national airspace are pending (delivery of a regulatory framework is slated for 2015)， the rules attached to larger UAS like the planned Solara are expected to be fairly strict。
當(dāng)然，泰坦能否成功，至少在美國(guó)很大程度上取決于聯(lián)邦航空管理局(FAA)是否允許這種飛行器在國(guó)家空域中飛行。目前允許無人機(jī)進(jìn)入國(guó)家空域的管理規(guī)定還未出臺(tái)(相關(guān)制度將于2015年推出)，針對(duì)像Solara這樣大型無人機(jī)的管理制度應(yīng)該會(huì)非常嚴(yán)格。
But Sanders and company aren't particularly worried. Titan has been working closely with the FAA through its design process, and anyhow the only part of that multi-year duration the FAA is technically concerned with is the initial climb. Class A airspace ends at 60,000 feet in the U.S.; above that the FAA doesn't regulate, Sanders says (that's roughly twice the altitude that commercial airliners operate)。
不過桑德斯及公司對(duì)此并不怎么擔(dān)心，因?yàn)樵谠摍C(jī)型的設(shè)計(jì)研發(fā)全程中泰坦都與聯(lián)邦航空管理局保持著密切合作。而從技術(shù)上說，雖然這個(gè)機(jī)型的飛行壽命長(zhǎng)達(dá)數(shù)年，但聯(lián)邦航空管理局真正關(guān)心的只是其最初爬升的那一段。桑德斯稱，美國(guó)的A級(jí)空域最高到60,000英尺為止，超過高度就不是聯(lián)邦航空管理局管轄的范圍了(這個(gè)高度大概是民用飛機(jī)飛行高度的兩倍)。
But while fitting into the existing flight paradigm is necessary, that's not really the driving idea behind Titan, Sanders says of the young startup (Sanders is 32, founder and CTO Max Yaney is in his mid-30s, and chief operating operator Nick Renold is 24). That's why the company refers to its products as atmospheric satellites rather than UAS. In a way, Titan is trying to hack the UAS and satellite space by providing something radically different and far more accessible than what's already out there。
桑德斯談及這家年輕的公司(桑德斯32歲，創(chuàng)始人兼首席技術(shù)官馬克斯•雅尼35歲左右，首席運(yùn)營(yíng)官尼克•雷諾德只有24歲)時(shí)表示，盡管符合現(xiàn)行飛行管理規(guī)定勢(shì)在必行，但這不是泰坦公司真正的動(dòng)力所在。這就是為什么公司稱其產(chǎn)品為大氣層衛(wèi)星而不是無人機(jī)的緣故。在某種程度上，泰坦是要拿出一種截然不同、比現(xiàn)有產(chǎn)品更容易使用的產(chǎn)品來沖擊無人機(jī)和衛(wèi)星領(lǐng)域。
"We don't want any operating costs, we don't want you to spend thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars just to get the stupid thing certified all the time," Sanders says。
桑德斯說：“我們不希望它帶來任何運(yùn)行成本，不想客戶為了讓一臺(tái)不像樣的飛行器獲準(zhǔn)飛行而不停地大筆花錢。”
"We want something very simple and that doesn't take up all of your time and energy to keep it running. If all you need is one person to keep an eye on the aircraft, that completely changes things. We're trying to change the mindset on how aircraft should operate."
“我們想打造一臺(tái)非常簡(jiǎn)單的產(chǎn)品，它能持續(xù)飛行，無需占用客戶大量時(shí)間和精力。如果只需要有一個(gè)人監(jiān)控飛行器，那就會(huì)讓局面徹底改觀。我們是要努力改變大家對(duì)飛行器運(yùn)行方式的普遍看法。”
