Rockwell Collins Wins DARPA Contract

Corridor Manufacturer Completed First Two Phases Last Year

Rockwell Collins has been awarded the third phase of a government contract to demonstrate autonomous takeoff, landing, and recovery from extreme damage by an unmanned aircraft.  The Defense Advanced Research Projects awarded Rockwell Collins the third phase of its Damage Tolerance contract.

Under the contract, Rockwell Collins will demonstrate complete autonomous takeoff, recovery from extreme damage and failure, and autonomous landing.

The technology will be demonstrated on an unmanned F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet. Additional flight tests will be conducted on an Unmanned Aircraft System.

The demonstrations will include the failure of control surfaces and part of the wing and the loss of the vertical and horizontal tail surfaces.

Rockwell Collins will also demonstrate an engine-out condition, automatic adaptive recovery, and emergency auto landing.

"In addition to demonstrating increased reliability of unmanned aircraft, the damage tolerance work we are doing with DARPA goes a long way in facilitating evolving applications for UAS and the safe coexistence of manned and unmanned aircraft in common airspace," said David Vos, senior director of control technologies for Rockwell Collins. "Unmanned aircraft reliability in the battlespace will ensure that U.S. and Allied forces receive real-time high quality intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data."

Phases I and II of the project were completed in April 2008. In Phase II, the technology demonstrated an aircraft could survive catastrophic wing damage, recover its baseline performance, and safely land all autonomously.