04 February 2009

The Overlooked "Gust of Wind" Use Case

The Gnat is a General Atomics UAV designed by LSI in the 80's and initially deployed by Turkish military and later to the Balkans for use by the CIA and others. Wikipedia relays a report that a Gnat 750 crashed during tests:

". . . when it was hit by a gust of wind, causing it to indicate zero airspeed. The UAV's software decided that meant it had landed and shut down the engine, causing the Gnat to fall to earth."

Some accounts indicate that several GNATs are still in use in Iraq.

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