Wednesday, March 9, 2011

RQ-4 Global Hawk


RQ-4 Global Hawk is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) made by American. In role and operational design, the Global Hawk is similar to the Lockheed U-2, the venerable 1950s spy plane. It is a theater commander's asset to provide a broad overview and systematic target surveillance. For this purpose, the Global Hawk is able to provide high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar  (SAR)—that can penetrate cloud-cover and sandstorms and Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) imagery at long range with long loiter times over target areas. It can survey as much as 40,000 square miles (100,000 square kilometers) of terrain a day.


In an unusual move, the aircraft entered initial low-rate production concurrently while still in engineering and manufacturing development. Nine production Block 10 aircraft (sometimes referred to as RQ-4A configuration) were produced, two of which were sold to the US Navy. Two more were sent to Iraq to support operations there. The final Block 10 aircraft was delivered on June 26, 2006.


General characteristics
    Crew: 0
    Length: 44 ft 5 in (13.54 m)
    Wingspan: 116 ft 2 in (35.41 m)
    Height: 15 ft 2 in (4.62 m)
    Empty weight: 8,490 lb (3,851 kg)
    Gross weight: 22,900 lb (10,387 kg)
    Powerplant: 1 × Allison Rolls-Royce AE3007H turbofan engine, 7,050 lbf (31.4 kN) thrust

Performance
    Maximum speed: 497.1 mph (800.0 km/h; 432.0 kn)
    Cruise speed: 404 mph (351 kn; 650 km/h)
    Range: 15,525 mi (13,491 nmi; 24,985 km)
    Endurance: 36 hours
    Service ceiling: 65,000 ft (19,812 m)

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