BAE Systems SkyEye

__NOTOC__ Infobox Aircraft
name=R4D SkyEye, R4E SkyEye, Sky Owl


caption=
type=Reconnaissance UAV
national origin=United States
manufacturer=Developmental Sciences, BAE Systems, McDonnell Douglas
designer=
first flight=avyear|1973
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variants with their own articles=The BAE Systems SkyEye is a reconnaissance UAV developed in the United States in the early 1970s by the Developmental Sciences Corporation, then a division of Lear Astronics Corporation but later part of BAE Systems. Developmental Sciences was one of the first US companies to investigate battlefield UAVs, flying the first prototype of the SkyEye series in 1973, leading to the first flight of the improved R4E variant in 1978. The R4E has been continuously refined since then in a sequence of subvariants.

The R4E SkyEye is in service with a number of countries, including Egypt and Morocco, for battlefield surveillance, and has also been used commercially for pesticide spraying. Apparently a few stock R4Es were also purchased by the US Army's Central Command in Latin America and used for border patrols. The US Army had also considered a variant of it, the McDonnell Douglas Sky Owl, for the short-range UAV competition. As the Sky Owl, McDonnell Douglas leveraged it into the company's proposal for the Army competition, but apparently it proved generally inferior to the RQ-5 Hunter.

The SkyEye has the common pusher-propeller twin-tailboom configuration, but it has distinctive slightly-swept wings and antennas on top of the tailplanes. It is powered by a UAV Engines Limited (UEL) 39 kW (52 hp) rotary engine. The SkyEye can carry two underwing stores along with its other payload. It lands on a retractable centerline skid or can be recovered by parachute.

pecifications (R4E SkyEye)

aerospecs
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met or eng?= eng
crew=None
capacity=180 lb (82 kg) payload
length m=4.10
length ft=13
length in=5
span m=7.32
span ft=24
span in=0
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swept ft=
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empty weight kg=
empty weight lb=
gross weight kg=570
gross weight lb=1,250
lift kg=
lift lb=
eng1 number=1
eng1 type=UEL
eng1 kw= 39
eng1 hp= 52
eng1 kn=
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max speed kmh=200
max speed mph=125
max speed mach=
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range km=
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endurance h= >8
endurance min=
ceiling m=4,600
ceiling ft=15,000
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armament6= aircontent
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References

This article contains material that originally came from the web article [http://www.vectorsite.net/twuav.html "Unmanned Aerial Vehicles"] by Greg Goebel, which exists in the Public Domain.

External links

* [http://www.eis.na.baesystems.com/platform_solutions/products_and_services/platforms/unmannedsystems/skyeye.html R4E SkyEye on manufacturer's website]