General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has announced that on August 6, its MQ-1C Gray Eagle Extended Range (MQ-1C ER) UAS completed a 41.9-hour endurance flight, which surpassed the 40 hour flight test goal.
The UAS flew out of El Mirage, California in a “representative U.S. Army mission configuration.”
“This is an important milestone for the MQ-1C ER program,” says David R. Alexander, president, Aircraft Systems, GA-ASI.
“The MQ-1C ER represents a significant enhancement in capability over the currently fielded MQ-1C and will be a game changer on the battlefield in support of our Army customer.”
This month, the MQ-1C ER production aircraft will begin flight testing for evaluation of the Army's First Article Test (FAT).
Payloads
Payloads
FlightWave Aerospace Systems introduces FlightWave Edge UAS
California-based startup FlightWave Aerospace Systems, Inc. has introduced its premier system, the FlightWave Edge UAS, which is a “long-range, high-endurance, vertical take-off aircraft.”
Designed and manufactured in the United States, the UAS offers a variety of unique features, including its ability to perform in various weather conditions and having a wind rejection up to 40 knots; its versatility, as in just seconds, the UAS can automatically transform from a tri-copter to forward flight; and its endurance, as the UAS can fly for more than two hours at a time in cruise and up to 100 km range per charge.
Thanks to these features and more, FlightWave CMO Edmund Cronin says that the UAS can be used for a plethora of missions.
Overwatch Imaging upgrades autonomous image processing capabilities of airborne multi-camera payloads
In collaboration with SOAR Oregon, Hood River, Oregon-based Overwatch Imaging, which specializes in customized large-scale aerial imagery intelligence systems, has successfully completed a year-long program to upgrade the TK-X family of airborne multi-camera payloads’ autonomous image processing capabilities.
The TK-X family of Overwatch payloads include multiple cameras in “an actively stabilized, nadir-oriented mount with automated step-stare camera pointing controls,” which allows for the quick collection of high-resolution multi-spectral imagery.
Also included in the payloads are “embedded GPU-based onboard image processing, with customized software performing real-time multi-image registration, image-based object detection, and image mapping.”
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