Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

无人驾驶飞机

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot onboard. Its flight is either controlled autonomously by computers in the vehicle, or under the remote control of a navigator, or pilot (in military UAVs called a Combat Systems Officer on UCAVs) on the ground or in another vehicle.

无人驾驶飞机,俗称无人机,即无需驾驶员在机内驾驶的飞机。其飞行时接受的并不是机内电脑的自动控制，也不是导航员的远程控制，更不是来自地面或另一飞机上无人作战机指挥官的控制.

There are a wide variety of drone shapes, sizes, configurations, and characteristics. Historically, UAVs were simple remotely piloted aircraft, but autonomous control is increasingly being employed.

无人机种类繁多,在外形、大小、结构和性能上各有千秋。过去无人驾驶飞机只是简单的远程人工驾驶飞机，而现在越来越多的的无人机都采用了自动控制驾驶。

Their largest use is within military applications. UAVs are also used in a small but growing number of civil applications, such as firefighting or nonmilitary security work, such as surveillance of pipelines. UAVs are often preferred for missions that are too "dull, dirty, or dangerous" for manned aircraft.

无人机最广泛地运用于军事领域，在民用领域，如消防事业或管道监控这样的非军事保障工作中也占有小额比重，并有所增长。对载人飞机来说，那些“无聊、肮脏或危险的”任务，就可以利用无人机来执行。

History

The earliest attempt at a powered unmanned aerial vehicle was A. M. Low's "Aerial Target" of 1916. Nikola Tesla described a fleet of unmanned aerial combat vehicles in 1915. A number of remote-controlled airplane advances followed, including the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, during and after World War I, including the first scale RPV (Remote Piloted Vehicle), developed by the film star and model airplane enthusiast Reginald Denny in 1935. More were made in the technology rush during World War II; these were used both to train antiaircraft gunners and to fly attack missions. Jet engines were applied after World War II, in such types as the Teledyne Ryan Firebee I of 1951, while companies like Beechcraft also got in the game with their Model 1001 for the United States Navy in 1955. Nevertheless, they were little more than remote-controlled airplanes until the Vietnam Era.

机动无人驾驶飞机最早的开发在1916年 A.M 罗的“空中目标”里。尼古拉·泰斯拉曾于1915年提出建造无人驾驶作战机队的构想。随之而来的是一系列远程控制飞机的进步，如休伊特·斯佩里开发的自动化飞机；在一战期间及其结束后， 还有由电影演员、飞机模型爱好者雷金纳德丹尼于1935年研发的第一架远程人工驾驶飞机。二战期间，科学技术迅猛的发展使无人机有了更多的进步，无人机不仅用于训练防空炮手，还用于空中攻击训练。二战结束后，无人机增添了喷气发动机这一配置，这样配置的飞机有泰勒雷恩公司1951年研发的AGM-34火蜂，还有山毛榉飞机公司于1955年为美国海军舰队研发的1001。

The birth of U.S. UAVs (called RPVs at the time) began in 1959 when United States Air Force (USAF) officers, concerned about losing pilots over hostile territory, began planning for the use of unmanned flights.  This plan became intensified when Francis Gary Powers and his "secret" U-2 were shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960. Within days, the highly classified UAV program was launched under the code name of "Red Wagon."  The August 2 and August 4, 1964, clash in the Tonkin Gulf between naval units of the U.S. and North Vietnamese Navy initiated America's highly classified UAVs into their first combat missions of the Vietnam War.  When the "Red Chinese" showed photographs of downed U.S. UAVs via Wide World Photos, the official U.S. response was, "no comment."

美国无人机（当时称为远程控制飞机）的诞生始于1959，这是由于美国空军指挥官在考虑到反恐行动中的飞行员损伤后，决心使用无人飞行机。1960年在弗兰西斯加里鲍尔斯的U-2 隐形战机苏联击落事件后，这一计划的开展得以加速。数日之内，高度机密的无人机项目便以“红色小马车”为代号开始运行了。1964年8月2号及8月4号，在东京湾爆发的美国海军部门与越南北方海军的冲突事件，即标志着美国高度机密的无人机项目第一次在越战中执行军事任务。而在中国共产党在“世界照片博览”中展示美国无人机的照片后，美国空军方面的回复却是，“无可奉告”。

Only on February 26, 1973, during testimony before the United States House Committee on Appropriations, did the U.S. military officially confirm that they had been utilizing UAVs in Southeast Asia (Vietnam). While over 5,000 U.S. airmen had been killed and over 1,000 more were either missing in action (MIA), or captured (prisoners of war/POW); the USAF 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing had flown approximately 3,435 UAV missions during the war, at a cost of about 554 UAVs lost to all causes. In the words of USAF General George S. Brown, Commander, Air Force Systems Command in 1972, "The only reason we need (UAVs) is that we don't want to needlessly expend the man in the cockpit."  Later that same year, General John C. Meyer, Commander in Chief, Strategic Air Command, stated, "we let the drone do the high-risk flying ... the loss rate is high, but we are willing to risk more of them ... they save lives!"

 直到1973年2月26日,美国军方才在美国国会拨款宣言中正式承认对东南亚(越南)使用无人机。而在战争中，超过5000名飞行员被无情杀害，有一千多名飞行员或是失踪，或是被俘；美国空军侦查战略共派遣了约3435架无人机参与战争，由于各种原因，有554架无人机丢失。空军上将乔治 S.布朗，也是1972年空军系统司令部的指挥官曾说：“我们需要无人机的唯一原因是因为我们不想在战场上有不必要的损伤。”后来，也是在那一年，约翰C.迈耶上将，美国空军战略司令部首席指挥官也发表声明：“我们让无人机去执行那些高风险的飞行任务……尽管它们的损伤率很高，但我们宁愿冒这些风险……因为它们拯救的是生命！”

During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Syrian missile batteries in Lebanon caused heavy damage to Israeli fighter jets. As a result, Israel developed the first modern UAV. Israel pioneered the use of UAVs for real-time surveillance, electronic warfare and decoys.The images and radar decoying provided by these UAVs helped Israel to completely neutralize the Syrian air defenses at the start of the 1982 Lebanon War, resulting in no pilots downed.

1973年赎罪日战争期间，叙利亚在黎巴嫩所发射的导弹令以色列喷气式战斗机造成了严重损伤。因此，以色列开发了世界上第一台现代化无人飞行机。以色列首创以无人机担任实时监控任务，开创电子战争以及电子诱饵的先河。这些无人机提供的影响及雷达诱饵使得叙利亚空军在1982年黎巴嫩战争中的作用大打折扣，并且无一名以色列飞行员发生坠机事件。

With the maturing and miniaturization of applicable technologies as seen in the 1980s and 1990s, interest in UAVs grew within the higher echelons of the U.S. military. In the 90s the U.S. Department of Defense began to buy UAVs from Israel. The Navy bought the Pioneer UAV, which is still in use. Many of these Israeli and newly developed U.S. UAVs were used in the 1991 Gulf War.

20世纪八九十年代，随着应用型科技的成熟化与微型化，美国军方对无人机的兴趣大幅提升。在90年代，美国国防部开始从以色列采购无人机。美国海军采购的先锋无人机至今仍在使用。其中，许多在以色列购买在美国得以改进，并于海湾战争中使用。

UAVs were seen to offer the possibility of cheaper, more capable fighting machines that could be used without risk to aircrews. Initial generations were primarily surveillance aircraft, but some were armed (such as the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator, which utilized AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles). An armed UAV is known as an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV).

无人机为美国军方提供了成本低廉、极富任务灵活性的战斗机器，使用这样的战斗机器不存在飞行人员伤亡的风险。最初的一代主要以侦察机为主，现在一些无人机已经装备了武器（例如RQ-1捕食者装备了AGM-114地狱火空对地导弹）。由无人机担任更多角色的军事设想，最初是侦察，现在则发展到了空对地攻击。装备有武器的无人机被称为无人驾驶作战飞机（UCAV）。