STATUS OF AN ON-BOARD PC-BASED AIRDROP PLANNER DEMONSTRATION

Precision airdrop from high altitude is important for a range of missions while limiting risk to carrier aircraft. Since 1998 the New World Vistas program has sponsored development of a Draper Laboratory onboard Precision Aerial Delivery Planner and a Planning Systems, Inc. WindPADS wind/density field estimator to address these mission requirements. The resulting system derives an airdrop Computed Aerial Release Point on-board the carrier aircraft while in-flight to the Drop Zone (DZ). This enables adaptation to DZ changes while accurately accounting for current environment data. Reference trajectories for low-glide airdrop systems are also generated en route to the DZ. Two Ethernet-connected laptop personal computers are being used for the Planner, with its embedded airdrop simulation, and for WindPADS. The Planner PC also has access to data from the carrier aircraft 1553 data bus. Interfaces between the PCs and to the carrier aircraft have been successfully tested. Data is being collected by the Army to improve the Planner's