Posted on 12/23/2007 10:39:04 AM PST by BenLurkin
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center has added two high-flying birds to its flock. The pair of unmanned Global Hawk aircraft, of the type used by the Air Force for reconnaissance missions, will be used to support the space agency's earth science missions.
The aircraft will provide high-altitude, long-duration platforms for varied scientific experiments.
"We will essentially provide a truck for scientists to put their experiments on," said Chris Naftel, Global Hawk project manager.
The aircraft is designed to fly at more than 60,000 feet altitude with a flight endurance of more than 30 hours.
"The beauty of the Global Hawk is the combination of all the capabilities," he said. "It's going to be a very good supplement to our (existing science platform) capabilities."
The aircraft are the first and sixth such vehicles built by Northrop Grumman Corp., and assembled at the company's facility in Palmdale. They are two of the seven technology demonstrators originally used to prove the design concept.
Vehicle No. 6, given tail number 872 by NASA, already is decked out in the white NASA paint job, but its partner, NASA tail number 871, still has some equipment to be installed by the Air Force and checked out.
"I didn't want to paint it until that work gets done. I didn't want it to get scuffed," Naftel said.
Both aircraft still require installation of the infrastructure used in NASA's other aerial science platforms, including such items as the common power connections used with science experiments and specialized communication systems.
Unlike Dryden's other unmanned science platform, a civilian version of the Predator B, the Global Hawks are not expected to be used for any aeronautical research themselves, only as science platforms.
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
haven’t seen much on the Turk invasion of iraq this week. The US Army and Airforce have cleared out of the airspace so as to not interfere, and U2s are providing intel to the Turks.
Hmmm....
Indeed. Three land incursions this week.
I did an awful lot of different things in my lifetime with the military R&D, but I have one regret.
I never was associated with UAV operations. I did weather support for them in their early development, but never got to see them fly or the data they sent back. UAV’s are cool, IMHO.
Still, it has been a super life,
AHHH, well....
....Bob
I just had the idea of the century:
Remember the family of 4 that were caught in the woods by a snow storm this week? They were rescued after 3 nights in the snow.
They had a couple of cell phones with them, but alas, no cell relays.
What about putting a cell phone relay in a global hawk, and when somebody is lost, simply fly it over the area at 60,000 ft and call them? Bet it would work.
Comments?
.....Bob
Sounds good to me!
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