My first business was washing airplanes out at the local airport, I was 12 years old, and I was always trying to find a way to clean the airplanes using less labor, and to do the job faster. Such is probably always on the mind of a young entrepreneurs - improving efficiency, and trying to find a way to make money faster. I don't doubt that kids running lemonade stands don't go through this same thought process. I sure know that businessmen do, and that is quite evident with all of the Six Sigma business consultants out there.
Okay so, is there a way to create a robotic flight line aircraft washing machine? I believe there is, and I don't think it is as difficult as one might have been led to believe. In looking at the military's UAV drone program, where we have UAV bases in faraway countries, it makes sense to have fewer flight line personnel, not only for their own safety, but also to conserve cost in our military.
If the unmanned aerial vehicles are completely robotic, and are flown tele-robotically from thousands of miles away through satellite links, why can't robotic service machines do all the work for ground support? The answer to this question is; of course they can, however no one has taken it upon themselves to solve this problem, save the military money, or invent robotic systems which can re-fuel the aircraft, do minor preventative maintenance, and wash the aircraft's surface.
Nevertheless, the topic has come up at our think tank, and having been in the aircraft washing business all my life, I think it is possible to create the ground support robots, and also robots which can wash the entire airplane flawlessly while doing pre-fight safety checks, and preparing the aircraft for its next sortie or mission.
Having been in the car wash business, and around industrial robotics for a good portion of my life, it seems to me the only difference between a car going through a robotic tunnel carwash, and building an aircraft washing unit to clean an airplane on the flight line is that on one hand the car moves through the robotic tunnel, and when cleaning an airplane in this way, the tunnel goes over the plane so to speak.
Philosophically speaking, what is the difference? Not much, not much at all actually. In fact, I don't think it would be very hard to build, or very costly. Also I don't believe the time from conception and prototype design to use in the battlespace has to be very long either. This is one way our military can save money. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow has launched a new series of eBooks on Aurcraft Cleaning. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/
Last year, I was visiting Scottsdale AZ and I noted the supreme heat, it was even hot on the golf course, with all the grass around. Worse, because there are so many golf courses there, the humidity was quite high, and it takes a lot out of you just to play a round of golf, even if you are driving a golf cart. The golf cart we were using was equipped with a "mister system" which was quite nice. Still, we had to get out of the cart each time we hit the ball, and while we were on the green putting. Now then, I think I have a new invention idea, a rather cool innovation that the golf community needs there.
What they need is mini-UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) blimps with mister systems, which follow the golfers around. While they are following the golfers around, they can send a signal back of the bird's eye view of the course to the player's iPad or tablet. The golf carts now have holders for the iPad and tablets on the steering wheels as you golf in case you want to get all the information about each hole, as you play. Therefore it would be quite easy for the UAV video camera to send the real-time video feed back to the golfers. The UAV Blimp could also measure the angle and speed of the golf ball, along with the yardage, and send all of that data back to the iPad or tablet.
The UAV could hover above the golfer as it was their turn to hit the ball, spraying a cool fine mist, and as the golfer went to hit the ball the UAV could move vertically for a perfect camera shot to perhaps 18 to 40 feet above the fairway. Now then, there are several different models of indoor remote controlled micro air vehicles. Since a round of golf doesn't take that long to play, the UAV would need to hold just over a gallon of water which is a little over 7 pounds. The UAV would have to be quiet also, and therefore its propulsion system would have to have specially shaped propellers, luckily such technology does exist.
The video cameras and other sensors to keep the UAV from hitting trees, or going out of control would also weigh in at a few pounds. Indeed, I'm considering about 10 pounds in all of useful load, on top of the weight of the fuel used whether it be a battery pack such as a hybrid Ion-Lithium battery or a small fuel tank which is commonly found on remote-control hobby aircraft. We wouldn't want the micro air vehicle or UAV to be too large, or too bulbous in shape, it would need to be a sleek design, so it would not get blown away by high winds.
Often, the fairways with trees on both sides can funnel the wind causing the Bernoulli Affect, thus speeding up the wind, and creating dynamic wind currents. A small light weight unmanned aerial vehicle or micro air vehicle could be challenged by this, but not if it had a low profile, and the right sensors to run autonomously. Obviously, you wouldn't want anything that was big such as those blimps that are used for grand openings of retail stores, the ones that you put a sign on the side and fly at 200 feet above the store.
Picture this if you will; A Boeing blended wing aircraft design of the future, albeit a little bit fatter. Such a design with proper vertical fans embedded into the design could work and would have space in the blended wing fuselage for vertical fans, along with a combination of propellers for forward propulsion. It should be dynamically stable, at least for the simple purpose of staying with the golfer, and keeping up with a golf cart which may be able to run at up to 25 miles per hour. Also, it would be important to have a strong rubber nose in case the device crashed into a tree, had to make an emergency landing on the fairway, or had to ram a paparazzi micro air vehicle, or remote-control UAV which happened to be spying on the golfers.
Further, whenever our politicians go out golfing, we could use that live video feed, for primetime television. A Congressman, Senator, or President's publicity team could also take the best shots of the day, and tweet them to the news media at their discretion. Perhaps they would be golfing in Hawaii, Martha's Vineyard, or one of the other very popular golf courses that movers and shakers enjoy playing at.
Now then, it might also be wise to use distilled water, de-ionized water, or reverse osmosis water. This would prevent stains on the golfer's clothes, and de-mineralized water in this case would be lighter weight per gallon for the UAV.
There are of course other uses for such UAVs, and micro air vehicles, and perhaps we could take a current version of such technologies and use that instead of redesigning the system from scratch. All of the sensors, autonomous terrain guidance systems, mister technologies, lightweight video feed systems, and remote-control propulsion systems already exist. Most all of this would be off-the-shelf technology, along with a simple operating system, and customized software to round out what's needed. How much would a system like this cost you wonder?
Not more than $2000 per unit. The average country club golf cart is running in the neighborhood of $5000, and therefore the unit cost of a micro air vehicle or UAV for this purpose would more than pay for itself very quickly. And it would make sense at the more exclusive golf courses, that people would want to document and videotape their experiences, and then burn a CD-ROM or DVD for later use and viewing at home or at the office when bragging to friends. It would be extremely great for professional golfers who are working to better their game at some of the top PGA golf courses prior to the tournaments.
These UAVs could also be used by groundskeepers to find spots in the grass which are over watered, or under watered, and therefore it would help in the maintenance of the golf courses as well. The video footage which was gathered would be great for a country club's website, as it would add to the strength of its brand name. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 24,500 articles by August 24th or 25th will be difficult because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off now..
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