The Insitu Group is to build a prototype unmanned air vehicle for Boeing based on its Seascan ship-based commercial UAV. Similar agreements to test available air vehicles and subsystems are expected as Boeing accelerates its work on unmanned systems.
Under a 15-month agreement, Bingen, Washington-based Insitu will build the ScanEagle prototype using payload, communications and integration technology provided by Boeing's new Unmanned Systems unit. The vehicle is based on the Seascan, a small, 12h-endurance, flying-wing UAV designed for ship-based imaging reconnaissance. Boeing says a developed version may be able to cover 8,000km in a three-day flight.
The Seascan is a 15.4kg (33lb) vehicle with a 6kg useful load including fuel, powered by a piston engine. The 3.2kg payload includes a stabilised, steerable digital video camera and downlink. Launch is by pneumatic catapult and recovery is by flying into a line suspended over the water, a wingtip hook snagging the line and stopping the vehicle. Insitu is developing an automatic recovery system using differential global positioning.
Insitu plans to begin Seascan deliveries early next year, with fish location among initial applications, says chairman Tad McGreer. The company will deliver an air vehicle, launch and recovery system and ground station to Boeing, which has yet to decide on missions for the ScanEagle. "We have not done work on really small vehicles and we don't want to re-invent the wheel," the company says. "Agreements like this will allow us to build our unmanned systems business more quickly."
Boeing, meanwhile, has completed medium-speed taxi trials with the X-45 unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) technology demonstrator at NASA Dryden in California. The next step is high-speed taxiing, with a first flight expected in the second quarter. The X-45 is sponsored by the US Air Force and US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is expected to award contracts soon for Phase 2 of the naval UCAV programme for which Boeing is proposing the X-46 and Northrop Grumman the X-47.
Source: Flight International
