Even though this is not necessarily a Beginners RC forum topic, I thought it might be of interest to a lot of people. One point that I noted in the discussion we had here at the FAA Tech Center was the fuel economy that this thing has. It holds about a gallon of fuel and will stay aloft for about 24 hours!!

This falls in line with a thread here in this forum about fuel economy.


Check this out:

Agency Moves Ahead With UAS Research
June 10, 2010 –



Wilson Felder, director of the William J. Hughes FAA Technical Center in New Jersey, launched a UAS into the skies over New Jersey on Tuesday. As the popularity and convenience of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) continue to grow, the agency is pushing forward with a partnership that could eventually allow an increased presence of the aircraft into the NAS.

In a signing ceremony held yesterday at the William J. Hughes Technical Center, the FAA officially partnered with Boeing β€” and its subsidiary, Insitu Inc. β€” via a cooperative research and development agreement to better understand how unmanned aircraft should be integrated into the airspace. The partnership will allow FAA scientists at the Tech Center to study how the craft are constructed, function and operate in the National Airspace System.

"This research partnership is yet another example of government and industry working together on research to ensure the safe integration of UAS in the NAS and NextGen environment,” said Barry Scott, director of research and technology development in the NextGen and Operations Planning Service Unit. β€œThe addition of the Scan Eagle to our other suite of UAS research capabilities allows us to evaluate operationally and technically a smaller category of UAS."

Currently, unmanned aircraft fly only with certificates of authorization, or waivers. All operations are approved on a case-by-case basis. That could change by or at the end of the two-year agreement.

The two ScanEagle aircraft provided to the agency have seen hundreds of thousands of hours in military service in Afghanistan and Iraq. The ScanEagle can fly more than 24 hours at a time, and also has been flown in civil missions, such as search and rescue operations, fire and flood monitoring, and hazardous weather evacuation efforts.

I wonder how much the Gov't paid for that automated "Hand Launcher"?

Very cool indeed; thanks![sm=thumbs_up.gif]

The launcher is a good idea, no take-off strips needed.

With all these UAV's in the air, I can only imagine how complicated air traffic control is going to be in a few years.

From what I understand, they paid Zilch for the whole thing, being a "partner" with Boeing.

You ought to see the way they "land" the thing!! They have a long line stringer that they fly the wing into and it gets "snagged" on the line on either the left or the right wing. I think there is a video around someplace.. I'll put a link to it.

The FAA is looking within the organization for pilots to train for the thing and I'm on the list!!!

CGr.


PS: I uploaded a second picture in the original post showing how they "recover" the UAS.

Search and rescue in my area has been using RC aircraft with the on board camera system for a while now. Some of the news stations picked up on it just a few weeks ago. With the improvements in the camera systems they can now cover a lot of desert in a short time. Last time I saw something like Dick is showing it was the US Navy flying them and they landed them on board ship in a net. Things just keep getting better and better. Very cool!!

The way they are going it won't be long and we will be " back " to having to have a license to fly models. ENJOY !!! RED