Karen Walker
Hughes Aircraft has its first international customer for the Hughes Integrated Surveillance and Reconnaissance System (HISAR) that is on display in the show's static display.
The company is confident it will be announcing at least two more orders by the end of the first quarter next year.
The HISAR, mounted on a Beech King Air 200T, has been bought by German company Traffic 2000 which will use it for aerial environmental monitoring, in particular for spotting oil spills in the North Sea.
During a recent controlled test demonstration flight, the system detected a 40-litre oil spill from 50km.
"After that demonstration, they loved the system and they turned round and bought it," says Justin Monger, Hughes' manager, HISAR business development.
The system is derived from the same family of radars that are used on the Lockheed Martin U-2 reconnaissance aircraft and the Northrop Grumman B-2A bomber.
"We've taken the cutting-edge military technologies that Hughes is famous for and created a customised, affordable, lightweight package that can be integrated into a broad variety of aircraft," says Monger.
The company has also developed a new sea surveillance mode for the system.
"There are a lot of non-traditional roles for the system, such as for monitoring piracy," says Monger.
Source: Flight Daily News