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<< Previous   of   Next >> Associated Press  (click to enlarge) Mark Bigham (left), director of business development for US Raytheon Tactical Intelligence Systems, points to downtown Baghdad on a screen of the newly-unveiled control system for drone aircraft as he shows the system to Saudi Arabia International Guard air force officers Thursday at the Farnborough International Airshow, in Farnborough, England.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Saturday, July 19, 2008 Raytheon Inc. developing better control systems for pricey drone aircraft Associated Press FARNBOROUGH, England -- It looks like the ultimate new video game: the operator, in the comfortable leather chair, uses dexterous thumbs on a hand-held console to maneuver an aircraft, with its trajectory displayed on flat-screen monitors. But the chair is for a qualified pilot and the landscape on the screen is downtown Baghdad, as defense contractor Raytheon Inc. provides a first look at its new control system for unmanned aerial vehicles. The company says its Universal Control System, which uses some hardware from the gaming world, will shorten training time and help prevent crashes of expensive drone aircraft by providing a more interactive experience for the pilot. "We wanted the human to get into a cockpit and feel they are stepping into the system," said Mark Bigham, director of business development, at the Farnborough International Airshow outside London. While older systems used only a keyboard, single screen and joystick, a key factor for Raytheon was making the system more intuitive after consulting with experts and discovering that thumbs are the most energy-efficient and accurate way to control an aircraft. The leather chair is adaptable to individual users, who can also control a heating and cooling duct above their head at the touch of a switch. In a move away from what Bigham calls the "soda straw" view of most UAV pilots, the screens are augmented with digital images that provide a near 180-degree view. Raytheon wants to capitalize on the rapidly growing use of unmanned aerial vehicles in military operations and civilian projects around the world. The overall global market is expected to rise from $3.5 billion to some $55 billion in 10 years, according to the Teal Group. The war on terror has spurred the use of drones in combat areas, with unmanned aircraft currently flown by the U.S. Air Force and the Royal Air Force in both Iraq and Afghanistan. BAE Systems PLC announced plans at Farnborough to work with Britain's Ministry of Defense to develop an unmanned aircraft, known as Mantis, that can drop laser-guided bombs and fire missiles. But the increased use of the drones has highlighted problems with control systems. A Predator drone crash in Iraq in 2006 was attributed to error by its pilot back in Nevada. Two more recent crashes involving RAF and U.S. Air Force Predators earlier this year were initially blamed on mechanical problems, but full reports on the incidents have not been published. The Predators, built by General Atomics, are flown by pilots at a military base near Las Vegas. Primarily used for surveillance, they can also be armed with missiles. The Federal Aviation Administration says that more than two-thirds of Predator UAV crashes are caused by human error with the flight controls. With Predators worth more than $20 million each, that makes for a costly mistake.

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