In 2006, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.,
obtained a civil version of the General Atomics MQ-9 unmanned
aircraft system and modified it for research purposes. Proposed
missions included support of Earth science research, development of
advanced aeronautical technology, and improving the utility of
unmanned aerial systems in general. The project team named the
aircraft Ikhana - a Native American Choctaw word meaning
intelligent, conscious, or aware - in order to best represent NASA
research goals. Researchers at Dryden have a long history of using
remotely piloted research vehicles to expand the frontiers of
knowledge. Among the first was the Hyper III, a Langley-designed
lifting body. In 1975 a series of stall and spin tests was begun at
the center with a group of 3/8-scale F-15 RPRVs. Flights of another
aircraft, dubbed the "Mini-Sniffer," took place between 1975 and
1979, testing the concepts of an RPRV operating in the Martian
atmosphere or conducting high-altitude atmospheric research around
the globe. The DAST - Drones For Aerodynamic and Structural Testing
- program, a high-risk flight experiment using a ground-controlled,
pilotless aircraft, was undertaken at Dryden from 1977 to 1983.
Described by NASA engineers as a "wind tunnel in the sky," the DAST
vehicle was a specially modified Teledyne-Ryan BQM-34E/F Firebee II
supersonic target drone. From 1979 to 1983 the HiMAT (Highly
Maneuverable Aircraft Technology) aircraft was flown, one of two
subscale research vehicles meant to demonstrate advanced fighter
technologies that have since been used in development of many
modern high-performance military aircraft. In 1984 Dryden moved
from small-scale vehicles to full-size aircraft when a pilot
intentionally crashed a retired Boeing jetliner onto Rogers Dry
Lake to test a compound meant to reduce post-crash fires on
airliners. And Dryden was the center for operations of a family of
solar-powered aircraft designed to explore the potential for such
aircraft to monitor Earth's atmosphere as well as such other
factors as moisture content in soil. Beginning in the 1990s,
Pathfinder, Pathfinder-Plus, and Helios were all part of the
Environmental Research Aircraft and Technology, or ERAST, program
through which researchers hoped to mature RPRV and unmanned aerial
system technologies. Building on experience with these and other
unmanned aircraft, NASA scientists developed plans to use the
Ikhana for a series of missions to map wildfires in the western
United States and supply the resulting data to firefighters in
near-real time. A team at NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View,
Calif., developed a multispectral scanner that was key to the
success of what became known as the Western States Fire Missions.
Carried out by team members from NASA, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture Forest Service, National Interagency Fire Center,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Federal Aviation
Administration, and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.,
these flights represented an historic achievement in the field of
unmanned aircraft technology.
General
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