Using unmanned aircraft for science

Posted on: Aug. 21st, 2006 || Source: redding.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

Researchers in Boulder, Colo., are leading a movement to enlist unmanned aircraft for scientific missions too long or dangerous for human pilots.

Such data-gathering excursions, lasting 30 hours or longer and capable of covering half the circumference of the globe, could improve weather and hurricane forecasting and even help fight forest fires.

In tests led by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2005, remote-controlled aircraft proved their mettle over the California coast and in the maelstrom of Tropical Storm Ophelia. This year, the two agencies are pushing ahead with the scientific use of the traditionally military technology, and they are now poised to fly over a western wildfire and into the fiercest winds of an Atlantic hurricane.

In addition, NASA is set this fall to receive two Global Hawk unmanned aircraft being retired from the Air Force. They are the size of a Boeing 737 and capable of flying at an altitude of 65,000 feet for 40 hours.

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