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Aerospace mission to US

24 August 2005

Monash is likely to take part in several federal government research collaborations involving the design and production of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), following a tour of the American aerospace industry by Monash professor of telecommunications and information engineering Greg Egan.

Professor Egan recently returned from the tour of key aerospace companies Boeing and Lockheed Martin, as well as newer companies such as General Atomics and Aerovironment that are working on UAVs.

UAVs are pilotless aircraft that fly either by radio control or on a pre-programmed course. Their civil uses include coastal security surveillance, fire spotting, and environmental monitoring such as spotting algal blooms in major waterways.

"General Atomics and Aerovironment is a leader in environmentally friendly electric technologies and successfully flew a solar-powered UAV to 98,000 feet over Hawaii," Professor Egan said. "The company has expressed strong interest in using the Monash UAV test range at Port Welshpool near Wilson's Promontory in Victoria.

"While UAVs are most widely known for their obvious military applications, I found that companies are extremely keen to expand into civil applications."

Professor Egan is director of the Monash Centre for Telecommunications and Information Engineering, a federally funded centre that has been active in UAV development since 1999.

He said the federal government had approached Monash with several potential large-scale joint research projects as a result of the aerospace tour that also involved representatives of Australia's computer and manufacturing industries.

"The trip opened up potential for several significant areas of research, provided useful industry contacts and raised Monash's profile," Professor Egan said.

"Monash now has an opportunity to contribute directly to UAV research and development.

"US companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Advanced Ceramics, Aerovironment and Marvin Engineering were interested in Monash's wind tunnel and vibration testing facilities for a range of aerospace-related activities, including testing airframe structures, and aerodynamic and vibration analysis," he said

Mr David Mitchell, manager of the federal government's UAV Development Project, welcomed Professor Egan's participation.

"We appreciated the support and contribution Professor Egan made to promoting not only the capabilities of Monash University but the whole industry group," Mr Mitchell said.