Visual Spectrum, Stealthy Micro-UAV - Self-Powered BOOMERANG (with stabilized camera)

VeraTech Aero Corporation ^ | 9-26-2006 | Dean A. Tangren, VeraTech CEO

[gaijin]

The ability of U.S. ground troops to safely navigate the gauntlet of the urban battlefield has been greatly enhanced through the development of the VeraTech Aero "Phantom Sentinel" line of Virtually Invisible VTOL UAV Surveillance platforms. The Phantom Series single blade rotorcraft has the ability to deliver close up, real time video intelligence within 75 feet of nearly any event and remain virtually undetectable to the human eye.

Based on the concept of persistence of vision, the Phantom's single rotor blade has a center of rotation outside of the UAVs' physical fuselage. As the aircraft spins, it disappears from vision. The Phantom has a uniquely minimal cross section allowing it to "slice" through even the most adverse weather conditions that would keep conventional UAV systems on the ground. The rotational inertia generated in flight allows the UAV to self level and maintain a very high degree of stability, even while hovering. Phantom is scalable from two to ten feet in length to accommodate a wide variety of flight times and payloads. The compact size and light weight make it easy to fold, field pack, and hand launch.

Features

• Near invisible surveillance for close in intelligence
• Scalable in size/range
• Self Leveling in flight
• Several launching options
  • Throw and go
  • Canister launch
  • Drop from aircraft
  • Remote launch

• Easily field packable/foldable
• Adverse weather resistant
• Limited training required
• Electrically operated
• RC or GPS compatible
• 360 degree spherical viewing available from high speed camera

Characteristics

• DC electric power
• Two to ten feet in length
• Two to six inches in height
• Four-lb weight
• Collapsible wing allows The Phantom to easily fold into a 12 X 6 X 4 inch space

Phantom Sentinel Product Sheet

Visit source page, look at 3 movies at page bottom to see UAV in action!

Visit company pages, look at bottom of page for 3 movies showing UAV in action...

[petercooper]

bttt

[Centurion2000]

Why would current soldiers look like boys .... and use obsoleted military equipment? (chocolate chip desert pattern trousers are not current issue)

[Old Professer]

"The high speed camera is on the bottom and simply shoots a high speed video target area that can be slowed down to real time when a computer image is generated."

Are you saying that there are cameras that can film things before they happen?

[DoughtyOne]

Very cool...

[CWOJackson]

It does look cool, but don't you also get a mental picture of a jihadist with a Browning over-and-under behind a wall yelling "Pull" at $20,000 a pop.

[gaijin]

as it is small and blurry and unnoticable.

Exactly. A good part of vision is actually psychological, and peripheral vision really isn't readily drawn towards something blurry against a featureless background.

People are overlooking the fact that to be "invisible" --things need not require being incapable of being seen, merely that they ESCAPE NOTICE.

That's functional invisibility..!

In fact, the earliest examples of vis-spec stealth go back to the Germans in WW2:

The eye is readily drawn to a dark object against a lit sky. Counterintuitively, the Germans equipped flat surfaces of standard aircraft to be ILLUMINATED, thereby avoiding the silhouetting effect.

A rapidly approaching aircraft so equipped would be detected, yes, but at a point where it would be substantially closer to the target --in many cases at points where defenders were ready to counter-attack only after the aircraft began egress.

So it worked.

The problem is that sci-fi has hopped up civvy expectations to an impractically high-level, and people are overlooking solutions that do offer promise in the REAL world...

Here, it's not much better --people make comments like, "I don't like that male model...!"

Well, I don't either, but that's IDIOTIC, and slightly bi-curious....

[JZelle]

Get yours at Sharper Image!

[DoughtyOne]

I suspect it would be quite difficult to hit this device at an altitude of several hundred feet moving somewhat erratically while nearly invisible. You do raise a good point if this doesn't work out to be the operational norm.

I will also say, I'd have like to have seen this device remain top secret.

[jbp1]

Can you say 'sargeant york'?
from the 80's
it also looked good in the video,
that was found to be doctored big-time

i hope the heck those army and marine folks over there get all the technology they can to keep them safe. They need things 'like' this to pre-fly their convoy runs to look out for roadblocks and such....

[gaijin]

They had similar fears with the micro-UAV "Raven", which flies low and quite slowly; they feared individual gunners on the grounde with AK or SKS would prove able to bring them down.

Well, they flew raven around at about 75 ft. over an ENTIRE COMPANY OF US MARINES, who were APPRISED of the presence of the UAV:

Here it comes, guys..! There...! And everyone just opened up on the damned thing.

VERY SELDOM was it hit!

It was small, and it moved, and that's hard to hit. I mean, a shotgun has a special shell for a SPECIAL REASON --to hit a small, moving aerial target.

In the REAL WORLD, few enemy ground combatants have shotguns and still fewer are gawking skyward for no apparent reason.

[spunkets]

I was thinking of a Browning pump goose gun.

[petro45acp]

"Like the idea and it looks like it won't cost too much."

"Have you seen what we pay for a Kevlar Helmet?"

Level IIIA PASGT kevlar helmet, 299.00, U.S. Cavalry
MICH II knockoff, Kevlar, 319.00, U.S. Cavalry
Both open market. I think the latest issue is a bit more expensive, but with better specs (level IV protection) and remembering that the helmet was originally not intended as anything but a construction-worker-like hard hat.

It is a nifty bit of kit, and multiple production orders will lower price, improve the product, and employ folk.

Cheers

[CWOJackson]

Or they could field some black labs...they love catching frisbees.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I'd like to have seen this device remain top secret.

That's what the Army said about the BAR during WWI. So they didn't buy the thing, and when the doughboys got to the front they found out they didn't have a servicable light machine gun. And that the French didn't, either - their version wasn't servicable in the trenches.

This proposal strikes me as an excellent idea. UAVs have to get smaller and slower and closer to the battlefield. It wouldn't necessarily find everyone, it it sure would inhibit maneuver by anyone who was hidden. And it might even see people getting into their concealed positions.

This is something to develop, and something against which to develop countermeasures. If these things are economical, you can make your enemy worry about a second one while he's busy attacking the first one (You could even have cheaper decoys to distract with).

[Dark Skies]

Are you saying that there are cameras that can film things before they happen?

lol...well the past is easier than the future, but sure why not.

I think you know what I'm saying by slowing the speed of movement of objects in the video down to that which is equal to real time.

[Dark Skies]

I wonder if the images are recorded on a chip in the camera or if there is some kind of transmitter on board.

[Vision]

That's pretty cool. But I still want to see more of these guys.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the comments relating to the issue CWOJackson and I were discussing.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the comments. You raised some interesting issues.

My comments were intended to make sure this device found it's way into action without the enemy knowing what they were.

Seems like we telegraph them with our latest and greatest all the time, and that bugs me.

[Shuttle Shucker]

Fortunately the border just got some added funding. That is reasonably good news. Lord knows Mexico has a wall against us gringos' ever becoming comfortable down there:

http://www.directory.com.mx/immigration

Can you believe how racist Mexico's immigration laws are against us gringos?