CESA will develop he landing gear for the Atlante UAV
This company will be responsible for manufacturing the Nose Landing Gear and a Main Landing Gear which will enable ground manoeuvres
The Madrid-based company CESA was recently awarded the contract for the development, evaluation and production of the landing gear for the ATLAnTE UAV which is being developed by Cassidian (formerly EADS Defence and Security) for the Spanish Ministry of Defence. This will be the first landing gear wholly designed by a Spanish company and will give CESA the necessary experience to offer larger landing gear and establish itself on the market for light and medium manned and unmanned aircraft.
Participation in UAV initiatives is one of CESA´s key strategies, and this contract is an excellent opportunity for the company to implement new technologies required for unmanned aircraft (electric actuation, advanced power systems, etc).
The project includes the manufacture of a nose landing gear which, apart from its smaller size, is similar to that used on larger conventional aircraft. The main landing gear incorporates composite materials, exploiting Spain's leadership in this field. The ATLAnTE is a long-range tactical UAV which will be used for Image Intelligence (IMInT), surveillance, reconnaissance, target acquisition, damage assessment and artillery adjustments, along with other safety and emergency missions. The landing gear’s new systems will offer important advantages in terms of ground manoeuvres (taxiing, take-off and landing on sealed runways), shock absorption of landing loads depending on the vertical land- ing velocity required, runway steering and the incorporation of a braking system for shorter runways.
To carry out all these functions, the nose Landing Gear (nLG) will consist of a landing strut, shock absorber, anti-shimmy, steering actuator, wheels and tyres and a braking system based on an Arrestor Hook. The Main Landing Gear (MLG) will involve the use of composite materials to support landing and take-off loads and a wheel-tyre interface, as well as a WoW (Weight on Wheels) system. ATLAnTE is a strategic aeronautical project financed by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) with EADS as the main contractor and Aries Ingeniería y Sistemas, InDRA and GMV as risk partners.
With this programme, the CDTI seeks to better equip the Spanish industry to take on major projects in the field of Unmanned Aircraft Systems through generation of know-how and the creation of a national industrial network associated with these systems. A key aim of the programme is to obtain certification of the system for its future integration in non-segregated airspace.
