November 28, 2007: In the last
year, six U.S. Predator UAVs crashed or suffered major damage, all due to
engine problems. So far, the U.S. Air Force has lost about a third of the
Predators it has received. One of the common factors in all these incidents is
poor error reporting. For a four million dollar aircraft, the Predator does not
provide the operator (at a base back in the U.S.) with as much data as the
pilot in a four million dollar commercial aircraft (about the same size as the
Predator.) For example, a Piper Warrior has a wingspan of 35 feet, is 24 feet
long and seats four. It weighs a ton, like the Predator (which has a 49 foot
wingspan, is 27 feet long and seats none.) A Piper Warrior pilot not only gets
instant alerts on the instrument panel when something is wrong, but can also
feel the engine, or aircraft, behaving strangely. Predator operators are
finding that the flight control software on Predator does not transmit
"instrument panel" alerts immediately, and when that data is sent to
the operator, it is often too late. Because the Predator has no pilot on board,
who can literally feel, or see, some flight problems, the UAV operator needs
more data coming back via the satellite link. The air force is learning this
the hard way, and is scrambling to give the operators more awareness of what's
going on up there.
