UAV's (Things that fly without Pilots)
The Jindivik
This month UAV's features a very surprising Australian Aircraft, the Jindivik.
One of the first surprises is that although it first flew in August 1952 it is still (arguably) in service today.
The RAF Squadron 41 Air Guided Weapons Operational Evaluation Unit operating out of Valley in the UK use what they refer to as (un-named) Target Drone. Their Target Drones are Jindiviks that have been upgraded as time passes until they can now fly at 80,000 ft and in excess of 500 mph.

Of the original 267 airframes purchased by the RAF only 31 are left. 174 have been lost because they were shot down (mostly in the 1960's and 70's) and 62 through accident.
The Jindivik came about through political manoeuvring. Britain wanted a long range missile test site, and Australia seemed the best place. The establishment of the Woomera Rocket Range say intense 'horse trading' between the UK and Australia, and one of the sweeteners offered to Australia was the contract to develop a target drone. This became the Jindivik.

The basic performance requirements were an Altitude of 40,000 and a 15 minute operating time.

Even the name is surprising. The aircraft has four names in use, Jindivik, Jindivic, Jindavic and Jindavik The most commonly used is Jindivik. Wikipedia gives 'The Hunted One' as the meaning of Jindivik, but other sources give the meaning as 'Fire Stick.'
Before the Jindivik came the Pica. This was a piloted 'proof of concept' aircraft that was the same as the later Jindivik except for modified air intakes (to allow for a cockpit) and a small retracting undercarriage. Development began in 1948 and the first flight of the Pica was in 1950.
The Pica was used to prove the aircraft design and develop the control systems before the systems were used for real in a live Jindivik.
Production of the Jindivik lasted from 1952 to 1968 with the production line re-opened to supply another  15 aircraft to Britain in 1997.
The Jindivik originally was not radio controlled in the sense we would use it today. Radio control technology in the 1950's was very iffy. A very clever strategy was used to overcome the control problems. The Jindivik flew on autopilot and eight standard autopilot routines were built into the system. The controller on the ground would signal one of the eight routines and the autopilot would follow that routine.
Take off was (still is) on a guided trolley and landing is on a single skid.
the first delivery to the UK was in 1960 and since then has been subject to continuous development. Much of this development has been to systems rather than the airframe.      Continued


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