Unmanned air vehicles: new challenges in design

The last ten years have seen a gradual shift in emphasis on future aeronautical technologies towards autonomous operation. This is most evident in the extended planning and development of unmanned air vehicles (UAV). UAV have grown from being target drones to unmanned combat air vehicles that will perform the suppression of enemy air defenses mission. Following generations may even include air-to-air combat. This presentation will briefly discuss some of the differences between manned and umanned vehicles, will give two examples of tasks best performed autonomously and will end with a few thoughts on why members of IEEE should be interested