IAI Heron 1 UAV in flight
SSGT REYNALDO RAMON, USAF • WIKI COMMONS
For example, a large Predator drone in
Afghanistan can be manned by as many as
seven or eight crewmembers sitting in the
United States.
Batten, a professor of mechanical
engineering, researches something called
autonomous vehicles — craft, both in the
air and at sea — that guide themselves.
They can have a wingspan as small as
six inches. “An autonomous vehicle is
responsible for getting itself from point A
to point B,” she says. Batten and a team of
OSU grad students are part of a $6-million
joint research project, funded in 2007
by the U.S. Air Force, studying the way
bats fl y in order to “develop autonomous
vehicles that are more maneuverable, more
agile,” she says.
The study looks at details like the
way hair on a bat’s wings acts as a sensor
and allows it to adjust itself and become
more aerodynamic, as well as at the
fl exibility of its wings. The idea would
be to develop a plane that — like a bird
— can tumble, fl utter, roll and fl y into
something, bounce off it, correct itself
and continue.
“The applications are vast,” says
Batten, adding that UAVs are particularly
useful in humanitarian situations. She
points out that Oregon is on the Cascade
Subduction Zone and if there was a
catastrophic
earthquake,
unmanned
vehicles could be sent into collapsed
buildings instead of human rescuers to fi nd
survivors. UAVs could fi nd lost hikers on
Mt. Hood and determine if they were still
alive and capable of being rescued without
risking more lives. On the science front, a
UAV could fl y into forest canopies, Batten
says, and assess bird populations.
It’s important to remind people, Batten
argues, that many technological advances
that improve life start out funded by the
military or NASA. “Anything can be used
for both good and bad purposes.”
But one scientist’s humanitarian aid is
another person’s nightmare. While UAVs
might save lives in the United States,
UAVs and drones are being used to spy
and to drop missiles that kill more civilians
than military targets. A 2009 report by
the Brookings Institution suggests that in
Pakistan drone attacks, “for every militant
killed, 10 or so civilians also died.”
Through a Freedom of Information Act
request, the Los Angeles Times recently
acquired the transcript of the radio trans-
missions of a Predator drone’s crew from
February of 2010. The transcript records
the crew discussing whether to bomb two
sport utility vehicles and a pickup truck in
Afghanistan. In the end, they dropped Hell-
fi re missiles on the convoy. More than 20
innocent civilians — no weapons or Taliban
were found — were killed and wounded by
the attack, including women and children.
The conversation of the drone’s crew, oper-
ating from a military base in Nevada while
talking to “screeners” at another base in
Florida who were reading the drone’s video
feed, is casual, callous.
“Sweet target,” the drone’s camera
operator comments, looking at people
riding in the bed of the pickup truck as
the crew tries to determine if the Afghans
are friend or foe. “Be ready for a lot of
(expletive deleted) squirters, dude,” says
the pilot. “Squirter” is slang for people
who run for cover as drones fl y overhead
and refl ects the videogame attitude that is
the result of bombing humans via video
feed. Drones target and shoot the squirters
as they fl ee after an attack.
Home Sweet
Drone
If a UAV testing area were opened up
in Central Oregon, there wouldn’t be any
bombs falling from drones, Predator or
otherwise. “They would not be dropping
ordinances; it couldn’t happen in the air
space we’re looking to create,” says Roger
Lee, EDCO director.
When the recession hit the east side
of Oregon, Lee says, “There was a half a
billion dollar industry here in manufacturing
general aviation aircraft and components.”
There is less than a fi fth of that today, he
says. Collins Hemingway, chair of the
aviation recruitment committee for EDCO,
adds that at least two aircraft companies
went bankrupt in the region. The industry
got together, Lee says, and began meeting to
fi gure out what could utilize the talent base
that was still there. The UAV industry had
the most promise, Hemingway says, and
“what we’d like to see is getting some of
our unemployed people back to work.”
EDCO says a dozen companies have
already said they would use the testing area
and cites Northwest companies including
Insitu, Boeing and Evergreen Aviation as
all benefi ting from a drone testing area.
There are benefi ts for Oregonians not
in the aviation industry too, Hemingway
says, echoing Batten’s list of nonmilitary
uses for drones. He says unmanned craft
could be used in place of human pilots in
high-risk situations such as tanker drops
to put out forest fi res. Mini UAVs, he
says, can be used in orchard management.
Hemingway says the planes could also be
used to patrol for invasive weeds. Ranch-
ers could monitor fences with unmanned
craft; law enforcement could patrol for
drugs. “Anything you can practically think
of when it comes to getting information,”
Lee adds.
EDCO drew up a proposal in November
asking Wyden, Merkley and Rep. Greg
Walden “to request an amendment to the
FAA reauthorization bill or other action
necessary to establish a test area for
unmanned aerial systems (UAS) within an
hour’s drive of Bend, Oregon.”
According to the proposal, 35 percent
of all aircraft ordered by the Air Force next
year will be unmanned systems, and “the
Air Force’s Unmanned Aircraft System
Flight Plan predicts that UAS will replace
nearly every manned plane — from fi ghters
to tankers to bombers — by mid-century.”
EDCO estimates that if the region got
just 5 percent of the military’s research
and development spending, the economic
benefi t would be $75 million per year.
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