UAV or RC

[kentb]

The thread about the Boeing UAV got me to thinking.

What would be the difference between an UAV and a RC airplane?

If you were to build an RC airplane, what would cause the FAA to need to classify it as an UAV?

Kent

[Mike S]

I have been building and flying R/C since 1963.

When I build one it is called a Radio Controlled airplane. I can build a flying R/C for a few hundred $$. I do it for fun.

When the Government builds, or pays someone to build one, they call it an "UAV", and the cost goes way up. Although the folks flying them might be enjoying themselves, it is still called "work".

Other than that, cant think of any differences.

[rv8bldr]

I think it has to do with the weight. 70 lbs comes to mind, but I could (more than likely) be wrong.

Cheers

[Transporter]

Weight is not used in military definition of UAV since all sizes and types are used. Backpack-sized UAV to 'look over the hill' all the way up to extremely large birds used to conduct long range recon, etc.

Smaller UAV are similar in size to some RC, but the comparison ends there.

UAV I've worked with have longer range (both in terms of endurance and comms) than RC since RC are usually limited by FCC radio specs.

Not unusual to operate for many hrs and cover a lot of territory, day and night. Are they expensive? Yes-and much of the cost is for payload, not the airframe. Fun to operate? Yes. Toys? Definately not-and I'm glad we have them.

Back to RV stuff!
Regards,
Mike

[Yukon]

UAV's have datalink, video, GPS, weapons. RC airplanes............don't.

[keen9a]

An RC airplane is a UAV which simply means Unmanned (or uninhabited for the PC crowd) Aerial Vehicle. However, most military UAV's are not RC. They generally have at least some level of autonomous control, aka the computer is the pilot not the guy on the ground.

[Rivethead]

You mean it's "autonomous" don't you?

[mrblob]

Generally, the distinction between a UAV and an R/C airplane come in the form of visual contact and whether the vehicle is being flown for commercial or private purposes. Radio Control planes, generally speaking, always have the pilots eyes on them. A UAV, being autonomous, can fly far enough away that the "pilot" (aka, ground station operator) cannot actually see the vehicle. Without seeing the vehicle, the pilot cannot 'see and avoid' other traffic (like real airplanes), and that's what gets the FAA's attention. There are also some regs about flying for commercial purposes... that is, flying a UAV with visual contact at all times still might not make it the equivalent of an R/C airplane because the flight is commercial, not recreational (I doubt anybody's out there designing proper UAV's for fun). A lot of this is detailed on the FAA site, if you search for UAV registration.

Paul

[John Courte]

My cousin flew UAV's in Iraq a couple of years ago. They were RC. One forward-looking camera, one side. They call them UAV's whether they're RC or semi-autonomous, at least the SEALs did 2 years ago.

L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. was going to deploy similar models here as a cheap alternative to helicopters to assist in foot chases, but ran afoul of the FAA.

[gstopyra]

For a look at the small UAVs we use in the army...google RQ-11A. It's called a Raven and we had a couple in my unit in Iraq that I was in charge of. It's a great system that will basically fly a pre-planned route via GPS. All you do is launch and set the mode to auto and you're good to go. Pretty cool that we have them down to company sized units. Another reason it's good to be on our side! Of course, it's all fun when there is no GA flying around the airspace. Hard enough to keep the helicopters and Ravens out of the same airspace.