Introduction to unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)

  Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

What is UAV ?

quadcopter UAV from drones

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a remotely piloted 
or self piloted aircraft that can carry cameras, sensors, 
communications equipment or other payloads.

The most of the world's modern armed forces are 
recognizing the tremendous advantage of using UAV 
in military operations. UAV is easier to built and less 
expensive to acquire than manned vehicles.

UAV is harder than to spot by radar and it also eliminates
 the risk to pilot's life on dangerous missions. 
Therefore UAV provides the safest, most effective 
and adaptable Technique battle field, reconnaissance 
and intelligence gathering.

Although it was originally developed for military usage,
 civilian uses of UAV are numerous: - law enforcement,
 border security, rescue and recovery, communication 
and imaging.

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV s) are increasingly being 
seen as the next step in the aircraft evolution with the 
potential to replace manned aircraft over abroad range
 of roles or to add complementary new application areas 
to airborne systems which  can't be served by manned Air planes.

UAV Classifications

1. Classifications by range and altitude

Military applications use generally a classification based
 on altitude and endurance or range.  The most famous 
categories of this classification are the medium altitude 
long endurance (MALE) UAVs and the high altitude long
 endurance (HALE) UAVs.

Classification of UAVs by Range and Endurance

2. Classification by mass

The classification proposed below is based on the maximum
 take-off weight (MTOW) of the air vehicle, similar to manned aircraft

Classification of UAVs by Range and Endurance

Reference:

From B.Sc Graduation Project of aerospace engineering Cairo university