uav Micro Air Vehicle aids Fukushima Daiichi disaster recovery Honeywell’s T-Hawk™ Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) helped emergency workers at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility get upclose video and photos inside the plant as they worked to limit further radiation releases in April 2011. tight spaces where humans and other aircraft cannot go. Weighing less than 8 kg, the T-Hawk is a ducted-fan vertical takeoff and landing air vehicle originally designed in conjunction with a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) programme. Capabilities T hree Honeywell employees flew five successful missions and captured hours of video and dozens of photos of the nuclear reactor. The four THawks in service at Fukushima Daiichi have been adapted to carry radiation sensors (see Figure 1). Deployed in war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, the T-Hawk features a unique hover-and-stare capability that enables pilots to hold it in one place and zoom in on features inside the damaged reactors while it sends live video and still images back to recovery workers. Just 355 mm in diameter, the MAV can be flown into Fig. 2 :T-Hawk™ fan duct ©Fiberdynamics State-of-the art CFRP parts Carbon fibre parts are complex in this unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). By means of matched-die resin Fig. 3: T-Hawk™ fan duct cross section ©Fiberdynamics transfer moulding (RTM), and CNC shot» lost core resin transply cutting, Fiber Dynamics fer moulding (LCRTM) Inc. – which was contacted process. Fiber Dynamics by Honeywell – was able also utilized conventional to construct a complex matched-die resin transfer hollow-cavity component moulding (RTM) and an which included an integraout-of-autoclave process to ted motor mount fan duct lower the client’s costs. With (Figures 2&3) and internal each unit finalized with fuel chamber made out of meticulous CNC trimming, carbon fibre that measuthe manufacturing team red 368 mm long and 216 managed to build a 1 000 fan mm high. Special features ducts for the T-Hawk. n included multiple encapsulaMore information: www.honeywell.com/mav & ted mandrels that were built www.fiberdynamics.net using a proprietary «one Fig. 1: Honeywell’s T-Hawk™ in flight © Honeywell 16 jec composites magazine / No73 June 2012http://www.honeywell.com/mav http://www.fiberdynamics.net