At a time when a great deal of research on UCAVs is aimed at maximising their autonomy it should not be forgotten that human operators will, ultimately, remain ‘in control’ to some degree. The decision-sharing relationship between the operator and the UCAV depends on political constraints as well as the intelligence of the UCAV system. This in turn dictates the amount and type of information to be exchanged and the way in which it is communicated with the operator.

Operational flexibility is a key military driver and in order to achieve it, a variable autonomy command interface, combined with information fusion and intelligent decision-support systems, will be required. To be effective the operator will need to work in concert with the UCAV system rather than act simply as a command source and an information sink. The implications of this ‘partnership’ for command and monitoring requirements and in particular for weapons release authorisation, are discussed in this paper.

One hundred and two years ago, after the Wright brothers had just attempted another unsuccessful flight, they predicted that it would be another 50 years before manned flight was achieved. Only two years later and 100 years ago this year, Orville Wright achieved the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, illustrating just how difficult it is to predict the future and at the same time launching the pioneering age of aviation.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new approach in the concept and implementation of autonomy for autonomous spacecraft. The one true ‘artificial agent’ approach to autonomy requires the spacecraft to interact in a direct manner with the environment through the use of sensors and actuators. Rather than using complex world models, the spacecraft is allowed to exploit the dynamics of its environment for cues as to appropriate actions to take to achieve its mission goals. The particular artificial agent implementation used here has been inspired by studies of biological systems. The so-called ‘cue-deficit’ action selection algorithm considers the spacecraft to be a non-linear dynamical system with a number of observable states. Using optimal control theory a set of rules is derived which determine which of a finite repertoire of behaviours the spacecraft will perform. A simple model of a single imaging spacecraft in low polar Earth orbit is used to demonstrate the algorithm.

The aerodynamic characteristics of five planar flying wing plan-forms suitable for micro air vehicles (MAVs) are investigated via a series of wind-tunnel tests. The external boundary of the five plan-forms result from slender carbon fibre (CF) struts under various degrees of buckling. The maximum lift/drag ratios were similar for all the (quite different) shapes but the stall characteristics were found to be markedly different. Results are presented of cross-plane traverses detailing the wake vector field and turbulence characteristics for two of the planforms at conditions close to stall. A MAV, based on mylar-covered buckled CF struts, is described. The MAV utilises elevon control based on modified commercially available micro radio control systems.

We discuss the status, trends and long-term ambitions of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) when applied away from the design point or concept, and therefore in the historically weak areas of CFD. This includes both undesirable flight conditions, such as stall, and undesirable products of the flow, such as noise. All pose the great challenge of turbulence, and accuracy is as dependent on the ideas behind the turbulence treatment as it is on computing power. A measured shift from Reynolds-averaged representations to large-eddy simulations will take place. Empiricism, both turbulence and engineering related, will recede only step by step over many years. Yet, CFD will make full use of every increase in computer power of this century. Increasingly, CFD will compete with flight tests, not just with wind tunnels, and will be validated by flight tests. Integration with other disciplines will allow us to predict crucial phenomena such as flutter, sonic fatigue, and pilot-induced oscillations. A gap will remain at any time between the phenomena amenable to a ‘grand challenge’ calculation and those amenable to a fully CFD-based design process, because certification involves thousands of conditions. The highest demand currently is in community and cabin noise for which industrial-accuracy methods are non-existent. On the other hand, gratifying progress has occurred in the area of stall and spin.