(I realise this is redundant re a post above, but I thought I'd leave it for the sake of the hilarious NAB reference)
Originally Posted by
NutLoose
Often wondered, why stick a cockpitesque bulge on a unmanned aircraft when surely they could make it more streamlined and incorporate the hardware it houses throughout the design. I take it C of G may be a factor, but it does seem to be a hang over from manned aircraft design.
What's under there is the uplink antenna, which requires space to move around and be aimed at the relevant satellite. At least early versions of this sort of thing used exactly the same system as satellite TV newsgathering video feeds, which is why the hilarious lack of encryption was discovered by bored people sitting doing customer demos in outside broadcast trucks at the NAB broadcasters' expo in Las Vegas just down the road from Drone Central (I was there). Note that it's been normal for broadcasters to encrypt their uplinks for at least twenty years.
What's more interesting is that satellite newsgathering trucks are increasingly starting to use a phased array antenna on top of the Transit van, which don't require such bulky hardware nor mechanical steering, and also maintains a lower profile in more ways than one. The military sometimes seems alarmingly behind the times these days.
P