Surveillance aircraft From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search English Electric Canberra PR.9 photo reconnaissance aircraft English Electric Canberra PR.9 photo reconnaissance aircraft

Surveillance aircraft are military aircraft used for monitoring enemy activity, usually carrying no armament. This article concentrates on military aircraft used in this role, though a major civilian aviation activity is reconnaissance and ground surveillance for mapping, traffic monitoring, science, and geological survey. In addition, civilian aircraft are used in many countries for border surveillance, fishery patrols or the prevention of smuggling and illegal migration.

Such efforts long predate the invention of heavier-than-air flight, with experiments using balloons to provide targeting information for artillery beginning in France in 1794, though continued attempts throughout the 19th Century proved militarily useless. Contents [hide]

* 1 History * 2 Current use * 3 See also * 4 External links

[edit] History

The first reconnaissance flights in combat conditions took place during the Balkan wars, on 5 October 1912 by Greek and on 16 October 1912 by Bulgarian (Albatros) aircraft.

One of the first aircraft used for surveillance was the Rumpler Taube during World War I, when aviators like Fred Zinn evolved entirely new methods of reconnaissance and photography. The translucent wings of the plane made it very difficult for ground based observers to detect a Taube at an altitude above 400 m. The French also called this plane "the Invisible Aircraft", and it is sometimes also referred to as the "world's very first stealth plane". German Taube aircraft were able to detect the advancing Russian army during the Battle of Tannenberg (1914).

Before World War II the conventional wisdom was to use converted bomber types for airborne photo reconnaissance, since these were the only aircraft with the long range needed for the reconnaissance missions. These bombers retained their defensive armament, which was vital since they were unable to avoid interception.

In 1939 Flying Officer Maurice Longbottom was among the first to suggest that airborne reconnaissance may be a task better suited to fast, small aircraft which would use their speed and high service ceiling to avoid detection and interception. Although this seems obvious now, with modern reconnaissance tasks performed by fast, high flying aircraft, at the time it was radical thinking.

As a result, fighters such as the British Spitfire and Mosquito were adapted for photo-reconnaissance during World War II. Such craft were stripped of weaponry, painted in sky camouflage colours to make them difficult to spot in the air, and often had engines modified for higher performance at very high altitudes (well over 40,000 feet). Early in the war the British developed a warming system to allow photographs to be taken at very high altitudes. The collection and interpretation of such photographs became a considerable enterprise. One site claims that the British, at their peak, flew over 100 reconnaissance flights a day, yielding 50,000 images per day to interpret. Similar efforts were taken by other countries.

Immediately after World War II, long range aerial reconnaissance was once again taken up by adapted bombers, albeit with jet engines, enabling them to fly faster and higher than before. Examples of such aircraft include the English Electric Canberra, and its American development, the Martin B-57.

In the 1950s, the first purpose-built jet covert surveillance aircraft, the Lockheed U-2 was constructed secretly for the United States. Designed for flights over Soviet territory, the plane remained an obscurity until one piloted by Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, leading to the U-2 Crisis. Modified versions of the U-2 remain in service in 2002, though its capabilities and operations remain secret. In the 1960s the SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest manned jet-propelled aircraft ever built, was constructed. However, as both the United States and Soviet Union possessed surveillance satellites, overt interest in new types of photo-reconnaissance aircraft declined.

There are claims that the US constructed a new, secret, hypersonic surveillance aircraft - dubbed the Aurora - in the late 1980s to replace the Blackbird, but no confirmation of this has ever emerged.

Another category of surveillance aircraft that has been in vogue since World War II is the maritime