- Boeing ScanEagle
Infobox Aircraft
name=ScanEagle
caption=A ScanEagle in its catapult launcher
type=unmanned aerial vehicle
national origin=United States
manufacturer=Boeing
designer=
first flight=June 20 , 2002
introduced=2005 (United States Navy )
retired=
status=
primary user=United States Military
more users=Australian Army
United Kingdom
produced=
number built=
variants with their own articles=ScanEagle is a low cost, long endurance
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) built byBoeing andInsitu .Design and development
ScanEagle is a descendant of another Insitu UAV,
SeaScan , which was conceived of as a remote sensor for collecting weather data as well as helping commercial fishermen locate and track schools of tuna. ScanEagle emerged as the result of a strategic alliance betweenBoeing andInsitu . The resulting technology has been successful as a portable Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) for autonomous surveillance in the battlefield, and has been deployed since August 2004 in theIraq War .ScanEagle carries an inertially stabilized electro-optical and/or infrared camera on a light-weight inertially stabilized turret system integrated with communications range over 100 km, and flight endurance of 20+ hours. ScanEagle has a convert|10|ft|m|0|sing=on wingspan and can fly up to convert|75|kn|km/h|0. Block D aircraft featured a higher resolution camera, a custom-designed Mode C transponder and a new video system. A Block D aircraft, flying at Boeing's test range in
Boardman, Oregon set a type endurance record of 22 hours, 8 minutes. ["Boeing ScanEagle achieves major flight milestones", "Aerotech News & Review", November 23, 2006]ScanEagle needs no airfield to deploy. Instead, it is launched using a pneumatic launcher designed as part of a university engineering design project, now patented by Insitu as the "SuperWedge" launcher. It is recovered using the "SkyHook" retrieval system, which uses a hook on the end of the wingtip to catch a rope hanging from a 30 to convert|50|ft|m|0|sing=on pole. This is made possible by a high-quality differential GPS units mounted on the top of the pole and UAV. The rope is attached to a shockcord to reduce stress on the airframe imposed by the violent stop.
Uses
On
March 18 ,2008 Boeing, with ImSAR and Insitu successfully flight-tested a ScanEagle with a Nano-SAR radar mounted aboard. The Nano-SAR is the world's smallest Synthetic Aperture Radar, weighs two pounds and is roughly the size of a shoe box. It is designed to provide high quality real-time ground imaging through adverse weather conditions or other battlefield obsurants. [ [http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2008/q1/080318a_nr.html Boeing Flight-Tests 2-Pound Imaging Radar Aboard ScanEagle Unmanned Aircraft] , Boeing,March 18 ,2008 .]References
External links
* [http://www.casr.ca/bg-mini-uav-scaneagle.htm "CASR" Illustrated Background Page - Updated: 07 August 2008]
* [http://www.insitu.com/scaneagle Insitu ScanEagle product page]
* [http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/scaneagle/index.html ScanEagle page on Boeing.com]
* [http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan2005/n01112005_2005011103.html DefenseLink article on ScanEagle deployment in Iraq.]
* [http://www.insitu.com/ Insitu home page, with links to pictures and video of ScanEagle.]
* [http://www.insitu.com/video.cfm?v=ScanEagle%20introduction%202006.mpg Video of ScanEagle takeoff and caputure.]
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