Eye in the sky: Scan Eagle
February 24th, 2010 | Photography | Posted by Erik Hildebrandt
The “hootch” appears out of the fog as if part of a movie set. Complete with an outdoor dart board, BBQ grill and kitschy patio lighting strung along the edge of Hesco cubes, the smell of fresh high-dollar coffee lures you in from the pre-dawn dampness. This is base-ops for INSITU/BOEING Scan Eagle operations in southern Iraq. Manned by a crew of three contractors, their job is to launch/recover and maintain a small fleet of nimble UAVs called Scan Eagle. With a 10 foot wingspan and legs long enough to remain airborne for over 10 hours, the menacing-looking swept wing airplane is largely derived from off-the-shelf technologies found in the RC (radio control) modeling world. But for a system that may have common components, the Scan Eagle program is providing the Navy with some very uncommon imaging products. It was Scan Eagle that kept an eye on the Maersk Alabama Captain when he was taken hostage by Somali pirates in 2009, and today, just off the coast of Iraq/Kuwait, Scan Eagle is patrolling the waters around the Al Basrah Oil Terminal or (ABOT). This gallery depicts a night time recovery using the unique capture system whereby the air vehicle actually flies itself into a vertical recovery rope which will slide down the leading edge of the wing and wedge into a specialized hook that catches the plane and then holds it in place until it can be safely lowered to the ground. After refueling and service, the aircraft is then launched early the next morning for another full day of surveillance ops using an ingenious pneumatic catapult. There is a GCS or ground control station at this land-based site as well as out on the oil platform itself. The shore-side GCS controls the plane for launch and recovery, while the ABOT GCS handles the operational phase of the mission. When the mission is complete, the ABOT GCS sends Scan Eagle back to shore and the in-flight control hand-off is done prior to recovery back on land. It is obviously an amazing system doing great work for the Navy.
Erok
