126 The Aircraft of British Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS 1977 - 2017
B
AE surprised the media in
December 2005, when it
exposed its development and
trials activities with a UAVs. For
some years, BAE had been developing a
capability in fully autonomous
unmanned airborne systems. These
large-scale, fully autonomous UAV
platforms enabled it to demonstrate the
key technologies for the next genera-
tion of airborne systems which include
specific programmes in autonomous
systems and low observability. Almost
amusingly all of BAE’s UAVs bar the
Taranis have a large notice painted on
each side stating, “NO HUMAN
OCCUPANT”, presumably so that in the
event of an accident, rescuers will not
hunt for any occupants.
Between 2002 and 2005 the company
secretly flew four airframes; the Kestrel,
Raven, Corax and Herti. Though the bulk
BAE goes UAV
of this work is centred at Warton, the UK
company also calls upon UK academia
and has expertise in UAVs in two of its
other self-styled ‘home markets’, Australia
and the USA.
Kestrel
BAE achieved a UK first when its Kestrel
made the maiden flight of a jet-powered
unmanned aircraft in UK airspace at
remote RAF Machrihanish/Campbeltown
Airport on 23 March 2003. Registered
G-8-003, Kestrel was a small delta
designed to trial a blended body/wing
configuration. It had a span of 5.5m and
weighed only 140kg. BAE SYSTEMS took
the bare airframe, integrated new systems
and equally importantly, worked with the
Civil Aviation Authority to ensure
clearance for the UAV in the UK. Within
seven months of the project start, the
vehicle was ready to fly. Kestrel also
demonstrated the use of advanced
low-cost composites and rapid
prototyping processes.
Prior to Kestrel BAE had trialled three
small radio-controlled machines. Soarer,
which came first, was a model glider used
to test novel aircraft configurations in
- The second, a propeller-driven
model called Cap 232, made 30 flights at
Samlesbury to test technologies. Then
came Hotspot, a jet used for training the
Controller and led to CAA permission to
flight test Kestrel at Campbeltown.
Raven and Corax
In contrast to Kestrel, the later UAVs
designs were taken to Woomera in
Australia for their flight testing. Originally
conceived as part of the Future Offensive
Air System (FOAS) project, the
aerodynamically unstable, agile,
jet-powered Raven which was built on
The Corax URAV (Unmanned Reconnaissance Aerial Vehicle) was
fully autonomous from take-off to landing and capable of
collecting reconnaissance imagery and transmitting it using very
low bandwidth. (BAE SYSTEMS North West Heritage)
