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The past decade has shown a dramatic increase in the use of unmanned tethered vehicles in worldwide marine fields. These are used for inspection, debris removal and object retrieval. During the past ten years, the RCV-225 vehicle has become an industry standard as a small size, highly maneuverable, inspection tool. It is able to operate in very confined areas that would otherwise be inaccessible. In the past three years major subsystem changes have been made to the RCV-225 vehicle to further increase its utility. These improvements have included the high thrust motor, an FM telemetry system, a color television interface, an image size measurement system, improved on-line video annotation capability, and an emergency locator beacon which is automatically deployed upon tether cable severance. For more extensive underwater work the larger RCV-150 vehicle provides greater power, and operational versatility.

The past decade has shown a dramatic increase in the use of unmanned tethered vehicles in worldwide marine fields. These are used for inspection, debris removal and object retrieval. The RCV-150* system is an example of these advanced technology vehicles. With the requirements of high maneuverability and unusual inspection a responsive, high performance, compact hydraulic system was developed. The hydraulic system is powered by an electric motor-driven pump which provides hydraulic power to the four thruster motors and to the five-function manipulator work arm.

The 747 airplane, the largest commercial airliner, is the first U. S. airplane for airline service to use fully powered flight controls without manual reversion. The four hydraulic systems permit the highest degree of reliability per system operation with all major controls powered by dual-tandem actuators or having redundancy in location of operation. This airplane has 500 hydraulic hp as compared to the 87 hydraulic hp used on the 707 airplane. Each system is powered by an engine-driven pump and an air-driven pump. The latter is operated during peak demands only. In 17,000 hr of ground and flight tests, the 747 hydraulic systems have achieved and exceeded required performance and reliability.

To keep pace with man's increased scope of space exploration in the future, it is imperative that fluid power system technology continue to expand its methods and techniques to be able to meet the severe environments indicated on the various planets. Support equipment industries have a prime new field to develop in the maintenance of vehicles in space. Various investigations have discovered basic data that will prove valuable in projecting effective fluid power support for space craft outside the Earth's atmosphere.

With support equipment now being needed in space operation, a radical change is being made to the support industry. This paper describes these changes in respect to hydraulic support equipment for space applications. To meet new requirements for present ground missile servicing equipment, new units of higher performance are required. However, support equipment for lunar and other planet operations require hydraulic type support equipment using cryogenic fluids. Other types of nonstandard hydraulic controls for space support would be the use of pulse rockets for both vehicle and personnel movements.

Aircraft hydraulic systems have progressed from simple to complex, reliable systems, and in the future, with the Mach 3 aircraft, will be called upon to perform even more tasks. A review of past accomplishments, with a presentation of areas where progress is needed is examined in this paper.