Everything about Scaneagle totally explained
ScanEagle is a low cost, long endurance
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) built by
Boeing and
Insitu.
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 between
Boeing and
Insitu. 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 the
Iraq 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 wingspan and can fly up to . 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.
ScanEagle needs no airfield to deploy. Instead, it's 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 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.
In addition to the United States military, the Australian Army also operates the ScanEagle UAV.
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.
Further Information
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