On Aug 18, 10:41*am, sisu1a wrote:
On Aug 18, 7:17 am, Brad wrote:





Wonder if this is where we will see thermal sensing instruments
developed. Probably eventually trickle down into our cockpits someday.
Brad

On Aug 18, 6:57 am, Richard wrote:

On Aug 18, 6:38 am, Burt Compton - Marfa wrote:

From the AvWeb AvFlash news:

Unmanned Gliders To Seek Their Own Lift

"Automated on-board energy aware planning" is being developed by the
U.K.'s Roke Manor Research to allow autonomous gliders to find
naturally occurring lift and sustain unpowered or prolong powered
flight, according to a report in ElectronicsWeekly.com. Ultimately,
aircraft equipped with software and hardware that actively processes
video feeds of cloud conditions and surface type (cool grass, or hot
pavement) data would be processed along with other elements (models
assessing weather and predicting vertical air movement due to thermal
and orographic lift) to identify thermals and share that information
with similar aircraft nearby. With that information, a virtual and
real-time lift map could help produce waypoint sequences for use by
integrated flight management systems aboard the aircraft as they
hopscotch from lift-point to lift-point along a route.

The aircraft would literally be led to their required destination via
a route that applies all acquired information to avoid areas of sink
and exploit the best areas of lift between the departure point and
destination point. Current proposed applications for the developing
technology include extending the flight range of unmanned aerial
vehicles.

Burt,

Several college students from North Carolina State University showed
up at the Montague Cross Country Challege in June 2008 (A model cross
county competition). *They had their own version of what you reported
above.

http://goosetech.homelinux.com/soaring/index.php

Richardwww.craggyaero.com-Hidequoted text -

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Boy, I don't like the sound of this. Bas enough we have to share open
sky with powered UAV's in ever increasing numbers, now the possibility
of sharing thermals too? Yikes. Mars is sounding better every day!

It would indeed yield the highly coveted 'thermal sniffer' (probably
the very instrument Johnson described in Kemp's video), but to me
would not at all be worth the price... (soaring with UAV's)

Violently Opposed,
-Paul- Hide quoted text -

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What would be wrong with sharing a thermal with a UAV? We already
share them with birds, cornstalks, plastic bags, and the occasional
airliner - to say nothing of random 2-33s flown by student pilots,
intently staring at their non-compensated mechanical vario for any
sign of lift! That almost qualifies as a UAV itself!

More thermal markers, too.

I think it would be cool - and the UAV would probably have better
thermalling etiquette than a lot of pilots out there...

BTW, I bet if you had a transponder, the UAV would be programmed to
avoid you like the plague!

Kirk
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