Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Surveillance Aircraft shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Surveillance Aircraft offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Surveillance Aircraft at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Surveillance Aircraft? Wrong! If the Surveillance Aircraft is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Surveillance Aircraft then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Surveillance Aircraft? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Surveillance Aircraft and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Surveillance Aircraft wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Surveillance Aircraft then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Surveillance Aircraft site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Surveillance Aircraft, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Surveillance Aircraft, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
image:canberra.arp.750pix.jpg PR.9 photo reconnaissance aircraft
Surveillance aircraft are military aircraft used for monitoring enemy activity, usually carrying no armament. This article concentrates on military aircraft used in this role, though a major civilian aviation activity is
reconnaissance and ground surveillance for cartography, traffic monitoring, science, and geological survey. In addition, civilian aircraft are used in many countries for border surveillance, fishery patrols or the prevention of smuggling and illegal migration.
Such efforts long predate the invention of heavier-than-air flight, with experiments using balloons to provide targeting information for
artillery beginning in France in 1794. Continued attempts throughout the 19th Century proved militarily useless, but Tethered Aerostat Radar System are now in use.
History
Airborne reconnaissance goes back to the early era of ballooning. After the French Revolution, the new rulers became interested in using the balloon to observe enemy manoeuvres and appointed scientist Charles Coutelle to conduct studies using
l'Entreprenant, the first reconnaissance aircraft. The balloon found its first use in the
French Revolutionary Wars: Campaigns of 1794, where in the Battle of Fleurus the gathered information and the demoralizing effect on the Austrian troops ensured victory for the French troops.
The first reconnaissance flights with winged aircraft in combat conditions took place during the Balkan wars, on 5 October 1912 by
Greece and on
16 October 1912 by Bulgarian (Albatros) aircraft.
One of the first aircraft used for surveillance was the
Rumpler Taube during World War I, when aviators like
Fred Zinn evolved entirely new methods of reconnaissance and photography. The translucent wings of the plane made it very difficult for ground based observers to detect a Taube at an altitude above 400 m. The French also called this plane "the Invisible Aircraft", and it is sometimes also referred to as the "world's very first stealth plane". German Taube aircraft were able to detect the advancing Russian army during the Battle of Tannenberg (1914) (1914).
Before World War II the conventional wisdom was to use converted bomber types for airborne photo reconnaissance, since these were the only aircraft with the long range needed for the reconnaissance missions. These bombers retained their defensive armament, which was vital since they were unable to avoid interception.
In
1939 Flying Officer Maurice Longbottom was among the first to suggest that airborne reconnaissance may be a task better suited to fast, small aircraft which would use their speed and high service ceiling to avoid detection and interception. Although this seems obvious now, with modern reconnaissance tasks performed by fast, high flying aircraft, at the time it was radical thinking.
As a result, fighter aircraft such as the British Supermarine Spitfire and
de Havilland Mosquito and the American P-38 Lightning and
P-51 Mustang were adapted for photo-reconnaissance during World War II. Such craft were stripped of weaponry, painted in sky camouflage colours to make them difficult to spot in the air, and often had engines modified for higher performance at very high altitudes (well over 40,000 feet). Early in the war the British developed a warming system to allow photographs to be taken at very high altitudes. The collection and interpretation of such photographs became a considerable enterprise. One site claims that the British, at their peak, flew over 100 reconnaissance flights a day, yielding 50,000 images per day to interpret. Similar efforts were taken by other countries.
Immediately after World War II, long range aerial reconnaissance was once again taken up by adapted bombers, albeit with
jet engines, enabling them to fly faster and higher than before. Examples of such aircraft include the
English Electric Canberra, and its American development, the Martin B-57.
In the 1950s, the first purpose-built jet covert surveillance aircraft, the
Lockheed U-2 was constructed secretly for the
United States. Designed for flights over Soviet territory, the plane remained an obscurity until one piloted by
Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union in
1960, leading to the
U-2 Crisis. Modified versions of the U-2 remain in service in 2007, though its capabilities and operations remain secret. In the
1960s the
SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest manned jet-propelled aircraft ever built, was constructed. However, as both the United States and
Soviet Union possessed surveillance satellites, overt interest in new types of photo-reconnaissance aircraft declined.
There are claims that the US constructed a new, secret, hypersonic surveillance aircraft - dubbed the SR-91 Aurora - in the late 1980s to replace the Blackbird, but no confirmation of this has ever emerged.
Another category of surveillance aircraft that has been in vogue since World War II is the
patrol bomber. These are typically large, slow machines capable of flying continuously for many hours, with a wide range of sensors and electronic equipments on board. Such aircraft include the Avro Shackleton, the
Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod, the
Breguet Atlantique, the Tupolev Tu-95, and from Lockheed Corporation, the P-2 Neptune and later the
P-3 Orion. The latter type became famous when a Chinese interceptor collided with the wing of a US Navy example patrolling. The crew of the larger US aircraft made an emergency landing. The Orion was impounded by the Chinese authorities then dismantled and returned to the USA. The crew were questioned but released prior to the aircraft's return.see U.S.-China spy plane incident
Current use
Several unmanned remotely-controlled reconnaissance aircraft (
Unmanned aerial vehicle) have been recently deployed or are under development in many countries, including Israel, the UK, the United States and India. Currently under development are, amongst others, the RQ-4 Global Hawk, a high-altitude jet-propelled craft that resembles the U-2, and the smaller, medium-altitude
MQ-1 Predator. Schweizer Aircraft Corporation are developing remotely-piloted versions of a light helicopter.
Most Air Forces around the world lack dedicated surveillance planes, but have the capability of adding reconnaissance cameras to combat and transport aircraft.
Another type of surveillance aircraft is the electronic surveillance aircraft. Whilst other military aircraft, including photo-reconnaissance aircraft, have been used for that purpose, several countries adapt aircraft for electronic intelligence (
ELINT) gathering. The Beech Aircraft
C-12 Huron and
Boeing Boeing RC-135 are examples of this military activity, which helps to reduce opportunities for surprise attack or the risks of training exercises being misunderstood by potential enemies.
As well as the development of
Unmanned aerial vehicle, another recent trend in surveillance aircraft design has been the realization that, with the addition of lightweight sensors and communications gear, every fighter plane and ground attack plane can simultaneously be used to perform surveillance. Hence, the in-development
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter multirole fighter plane will have extensive surveillance and communications capabilities built in.
See also
External links
- spyflight
- "A Tale of Two Airplanes" by Ltc. Kingdon R. Hawes
image:canberra.arp.750pix.jpg PR.9 photo reconnaissance aircraft
Surveillance aircraft are military aircraft used for monitoring enemy activity, usually carrying no armament. This article concentrates on military aircraft used in this role, though a major civilian aviation activity is
reconnaissance and ground surveillance for
cartography, traffic monitoring, science, and geological survey. In addition, civilian aircraft are used in many countries for border surveillance, fishery patrols or the prevention of smuggling and illegal migration.
Such efforts long predate the invention of heavier-than-air flight, with experiments using balloons to provide targeting information for artillery beginning in France in 1794. Continued attempts throughout the 19th Century proved militarily useless, but Tethered Aerostat Radar System are now in use.
History
Airborne reconnaissance goes back to the early era of ballooning. After the French Revolution, the new rulers became interested in using the balloon to observe enemy manoeuvres and appointed scientist
Charles Coutelle to conduct studies using
l'Entreprenant, the first reconnaissance aircraft. The balloon found its first use in the
French Revolutionary Wars: Campaigns of 1794, where in the Battle of Fleurus the gathered information and the demoralizing effect on the Austrian troops ensured victory for the French troops.
The first reconnaissance flights with winged aircraft in combat conditions took place during the Balkan wars, on 5 October 1912 by Greece and on
16 October 1912 by
Bulgarian (Albatros) aircraft.
One of the first aircraft used for surveillance was the
Rumpler Taube during
World War I, when aviators like Fred Zinn evolved entirely new methods of reconnaissance and photography. The translucent wings of the plane made it very difficult for ground based observers to detect a Taube at an altitude above 400 m. The French also called this plane "the Invisible Aircraft", and it is sometimes also referred to as the "world's very first stealth plane". German Taube aircraft were able to detect the advancing Russian army during the Battle of Tannenberg (1914) (
1914).
Before
World War II the conventional wisdom was to use converted bomber types for airborne photo reconnaissance, since these were the only aircraft with the long range needed for the reconnaissance missions. These bombers retained their defensive armament, which was vital since they were unable to avoid interception.
In
1939 Flying Officer
Maurice Longbottom was among the first to suggest that airborne reconnaissance may be a task better suited to fast, small aircraft which would use their speed and high service ceiling to avoid detection and interception. Although this seems obvious now, with modern reconnaissance tasks performed by fast, high flying aircraft, at the time it was radical thinking.
As a result,
fighter aircraft such as the British Supermarine Spitfire and de Havilland Mosquito and the American
P-38 Lightning and P-51 Mustang were adapted for photo-reconnaissance during World War II. Such craft were stripped of weaponry, painted in sky camouflage colours to make them difficult to spot in the air, and often had engines modified for higher performance at very high altitudes (well over 40,000 feet). Early in the war the British developed a warming system to allow photographs to be taken at very high altitudes. The collection and interpretation of such photographs became a considerable enterprise. One site claims that the British, at their peak, flew over 100 reconnaissance flights a day, yielding 50,000 images per day to interpret. Similar efforts were taken by other countries.
Immediately after World War II, long range aerial reconnaissance was once again taken up by adapted bombers, albeit with
jet engines, enabling them to fly faster and higher than before. Examples of such aircraft include the English Electric Canberra, and its American development, the
Martin B-57.
In the 1950s, the first purpose-built jet covert surveillance aircraft, the Lockheed U-2 was constructed secretly for the United States. Designed for flights over Soviet territory, the plane remained an obscurity until one piloted by Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, leading to the
U-2 Crisis. Modified versions of the U-2 remain in service in 2007, though its capabilities and operations remain secret. In the
1960s the
SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest manned jet-propelled aircraft ever built, was constructed. However, as both the
United States and Soviet Union possessed surveillance satellites, overt interest in new types of photo-reconnaissance aircraft declined.
There are claims that the US constructed a new, secret, hypersonic surveillance aircraft - dubbed the SR-91 Aurora - in the late 1980s to replace the Blackbird, but no confirmation of this has ever emerged.
Another category of surveillance aircraft that has been in vogue since World War II is the patrol bomber. These are typically large, slow machines capable of flying continuously for many hours, with a wide range of sensors and electronic equipments on board. Such aircraft include the Avro Shackleton, the
Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod, the Breguet Atlantique, the Tupolev Tu-95, and from
Lockheed Corporation, the
P-2 Neptune and later the P-3 Orion. The latter type became famous when a Chinese interceptor collided with the wing of a US Navy example patrolling. The crew of the larger US aircraft made an emergency landing. The Orion was impounded by the Chinese authorities then dismantled and returned to the USA. The crew were questioned but released prior to the aircraft's return.see U.S.-China spy plane incident
Current use
Several unmanned remotely-controlled reconnaissance aircraft (
Unmanned aerial vehicle) have been recently deployed or are under development in many countries, including Israel, the UK, the United States and India. Currently under development are, amongst others, the RQ-4 Global Hawk, a high-altitude jet-propelled craft that resembles the U-2, and the smaller, medium-altitude MQ-1 Predator. Schweizer Aircraft Corporation are developing remotely-piloted versions of a light helicopter.
Most Air Forces around the world lack dedicated surveillance planes, but have the capability of adding reconnaissance cameras to combat and transport aircraft.
Another type of surveillance aircraft is the electronic surveillance aircraft. Whilst other military aircraft, including photo-reconnaissance aircraft, have been used for that purpose, several countries adapt aircraft for electronic intelligence (ELINT) gathering. The
Beech Aircraft C-12 Huron and Boeing Boeing RC-135 are examples of this military activity, which helps to reduce opportunities for surprise attack or the risks of training exercises being misunderstood by potential enemies.
As well as the development of
Unmanned aerial vehicle, another recent trend in surveillance aircraft design has been the realization that, with the addition of lightweight sensors and communications gear, every fighter plane and ground attack plane can simultaneously be used to perform surveillance. Hence, the in-development
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter multirole fighter plane will have extensive surveillance and communications capabilities built in.
See also
External links
- spyflight
- "A Tale of Two Airplanes" by Ltc. Kingdon R. Hawes
Surveillance aircraft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Surveillance aircraft are military aircraft used for monitoring enemy activity, usually carrying no armament. This article concentrates on military aircraft used in this role ...
Unmanned aerial vehicle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Initial generations were primarily surveillance aircraft, but some were fitted with weaponry (such as the MQ-1 Predator, which utilized AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles).
C-212-400 Transporter and Surveillance Aircraft Air Force Technology
News and project information on the C-212-400 Transporter and Surveillance Aircraft. ... EADS CASA, based in Madrid, has supplied more than 460 C-212 aircraft to 89 operators ...
Air Force Technology - Surveillance / Patrol Aircraft Image Gallery
The Boeing 767 AWACS Airborne Warning and Control System. Japan selected the 767 AWACS to carry out airborne surveillance and command and control (C2) operations for tactical and ...
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Covers come off UK spy plane
Images of the UK's first prototype stealth surveillance aircraft have been unveiled. ... The Corax, built by BAE Systems, is the UK's first pilotless stealth aircraft
Flightmaster Sentry Aircraft Surveillance
Marilake has developed its aircraft surveillance system to enable the crew to monitor activity onboard the aircraft. Although primarily aimed as a cockpit door integrity system ...
Aircraft Surveillance Systems
Aircraft Surveillance Systems Marilake has developed its flightmaster Sentry aircraft surveillance system to enable the crew to monitor activity onboard the aircraft. Although ...
Aircraft Security Systems, Video Camera Surveillance by AD Aerospace ...
specialists in in-flight entertainment and aircraft monitoring video systems.
MI5 launch spy-in-the-sky UK manhunt for British Taliban who fought in ...
MI5 is using a fleet of sophisticated surveillance aircraft to search for unidentified Britons who fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan. ...
Battlefield Surveillance Aircraft
Battlefield Surveillance Aircraft. v1.2.3 / TOC (4 chapters) / 01 may 07 / greg goebel / public domain * While aircraft have been used for battlefield observation since the First ...
