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Return To Aviation Article Archive   Search the Article Archives Cloaking a UAV in Flight By Lance Winslow If you will recall the Klingon Space Craft and Warship cloaked it’s self as it attacked the USS Enterprise under Captain James T. Kirk. We know when we study nature, this is a tactic that predator and prey both use in survival. Cloaking, concealing and camouflage have always been methods of operation for offensive and defensive endeavors of achieving victory. Our lives and the lives of our ancestors depended on it. In war time we paint our planes, tanks and even battles ships colors, which mimic the natural surroundings adding an element of safety from enemy detection. Today we are uses Stealth Aircraft and designing uniforms, which blend into the scenery and even change colors as the surrounding background changes. It therefore stands to reason that we would want to protect our new robotic fighting machines is such ways. The simpler the technique the less chances it will fail to provide that extra security of cover. The more real it blends into the surrounding environment the less likely it will be detected and tracked as a target by the enemy. Using very simple technology we can cloak a Predator UAV. First we paint the bottom of the aircraft with a coating, which makes it into a movie screen, yet still absorbs the enemy’s radar. Next we allow a thin strip of carbon fiber material to drop from the center of the aircraft downward. The thin strip will be shaped like a sward to allow for laminar airflow and the least amount of parasite drag to help in performance and to minimize radar signature when flying to or from the enemy. The strip will fall under gravity and if it fails to retract the aircraft can still land and it will drag on the runway with a very tiny skid plate. Inside the strip will be a wire running thru it and to the top of the aircraft. A video camera on top of the aircraft will constantly take a picture of the sky above. There will be small projector on the bottom of the skid plate facing up which will project the image of the sky above on the surface of the bottom of the Loitering Predator UAV. Anyone looking up at the drone will see only the sky and the projected sky and not the aircraft. You cannot shoot down what you cannot see, with small arm fire or shoulder launched SAM. Chances are they will not even know it is there anyway. You win, good guys 1, Enemy Zero (gone). To cloak the aircraft from the top from enemy aircraft you would do the opposite, video the ground directly below and then project it on the aircraft above. This is the most simplest way to do it without expensive cost, re-design or making the entire skin of the aircraft a plasma screen TV. Think about it. About the Author: By Lance Winslow Aircraft Art

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