General Atomics GNAT
The General Atomics Gnat 750 is an unmanned aerial vehicle ( UAV UAV), which is produced by the Department " Aeronautical Systems " of the U.S. manufacturer General Atomics and was developed by Leading Systems Inc. (LSI ) in the 1980s. The most well-known development of the Gnat 750 is the MQ -1. The name " GNAT " can be regarded as shortening the company name General Atomics.
History
The Gnat 750 is based on the Leading Systems Amber, a small multi-purpose high-performance UAV, which in 1986 had its first flight. After LSI had to give up the development of the Amber because of not continuing funding from DARPA, the company tried with a simplified export version to get orders from abroad. In these so-called Gnat 750 version less complex avionics and simpler reconnaissance systems were used. When driving a LSI own KH- 800T or a freely available Rotax engine was either used. The first pre-production of the Gnat 750 flew in mid-1989 for the first time.
1990 LSI had to declare bankruptcy, the production took over after General Atomics ( GA). Where the department " Aeronautical Systems, Inc." was established in 1993, which was headed by former Navy pilots Tom Cassidy. GA also took over a contract with Turkey for the supply of Gnat 750, were added orders of the " Directorate of Science and Technology" (DST ) of the CIA. The CIA did not feel bound to the monopoly of the company founded in 1987 " Joint Program Office " (JPO ), which could alone determine which bodies were allowed to expend funds for development and procurement of UAVs.
Under the project name " Lofty View" the CIA procured a number of Gnat 750 along with the associated ground stations and also at least one Swiss RG -8A Condor, which was used as a flying communication station. In January and February 1994, these machines were transferred to Albania in March and April of the same year there was a further transfer to an undisclosed location, probably after Taszár in Hungary. Official sources identified the following use as a great success. Real -time images were able to be sent to the U.S. via the Condor aircraft as a relay station and a satellite uplink. Due to the low operating time Condor limited, a satellite link was only possible in each case for about two hours.
In early 1994 formed the Pentagon with the " Defense Airborne Reconaissance Office " ( DARO ), a new organization that was directly subordinate to the office of the defense minister, and was led by the USAF Major General Ken Israel. The DARO had its own budget and should be the development and use of a new family of long-range UAVs to monitor. The JPO, however, was downgraded in his power. DARO inherited by the JPO only a UAV program, namely the Gnat 750
Introduction of the animal system
Starting from the Gnat 750 defined the DARO a long-range UAV program, which the UAVs (Eng. about levels of hierarchy ) in one hurried according to their operational capabilities, costs and risks in use of different " tiers ".
- Tier 1 was the Gnat 750,
- Tier 2 was an improved, already under development unit, which was based on a concept of GA -ASI who received a completion contract in January 1994. It was referred to as "Medium Altitude Endurance UAV " and GA -ASI as "Predator". The first aircraft flew in June 1994.
The Predator was one of the first examples of the Pentagon as " Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration " ( ACTD ) called concept of the construction of a demonstration aircraft, which are already one - should have operational capability - albeit limited. DARO wanted to finish the Predator as soon as possible in four copies together with a ground station in order to be able to use in some sort of emergency services beginning in 1995. The payload of the Predator with 204 kg was significantly higher than that of the gnat which could only carry 60 kg.
Construction
The structural design is largely the Amber, but the Gnat is a low-wing aircraft and has a total of slightly larger dimensions. However, the Gnat weighs less and can carry a higher payload. It is driven by a four-cylinder piston engine Rotax 912, which delivers a power output of 64 kW (85 hp).