Homebuilt UK to USA Non-Stop

David O wrote:

Ron Wanttaja wrote:

Yeah, it's kind of funny...so many people are making a big deal about this
most-recent flight, when Insitu did it five years ago.

The TAM aeromodel crossing remains a "big deal" from my perspective
for a number of reasons. Kudos to Maynard Hill and the gang.

Not that I disagree, but would you mind elaborating on your "number of
reasons?"


--
Frank Stutzman
Bonanza N494B "Hula Girl"
Hood River, OR

Frank Stutzman wrote:

Not that I disagree, but would you mind elaborating on your "number of
reasons?"

That such a small group and small airplane could do it, even if
they weren't the first, is remarkable.

Dave 'long legs' Hyde

Frank Stutzman wrote:

Not that I disagree, but would you mind elaborating on your "number of
reasons?"

Scaling to FAI recognized aeromodel limits (11 lb max weight and 10 cc
max engine displacement) was extremely challenging. The TAM effort
was more than four years in development by a small group of dedicated
unpaid volunteers. Team Leader Maynard Hill is 77 years young and,
over a period of almost 40 years, established 23 FAI recognized
aeromodel world records. His pioneering endurance work gave the TAM
project a jump-start. Mr. Hill has done much to further the art of
aeromodeling and this was his crowning achievement (to date). It was
a big deal for him, a big deal for his team, and a big deal for the RC
aeromodel community. The Insitu "Aerosonde" weighed about 29 lb and
was not an FAI recognized aeromodel. Its development was a commercial
effort by engineers under sponsorship from US Office of Naval
Research, L3 Communications, and Boeing.

David O -- http://www.AirplaneZone.com

Ron Wanttaja wrote:
On Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:29:58 GMT,
(Corky Scott) wrote:

Wait, Boeing is not claiming their UAV crossed the Atlantic are they?


IIRC, Boeing bought Insitu *after* the Atlantic crossing, not before. This
was not done by a major corporation...Insitu was then a pretty small
company, almost a hobby shop.

And I'm not sure how much of the company Boeing now owns. I met one of the
Insitu guys (at a B&B, in fact) a couple of months back, and his business
card just said "Insitu." Boeing generally puts its name on any company it
has controlling interest of.

Ron Wanttaja

Both groups of opinions are correct except little is known of the real
development of the Aerosonde for various reasons.
The idea of a small autonomous efficient aircraft came from Tad McGeer a
very clever ex MIT aeronautical engineer. He knew what he wanted to do
but could not get sufficient funding apart from some funds from the US
Navy ONR and Washington State University. He formed Insitu up in
Washington State to beaver away on this project on a shoestring.
In stepped one Dr Greg Holland from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology
who is an expert in severe weather in particular Cyclones. He is looking
for an inexpensive tool to put met sensors into Cyclones without having
to hire C130's. Tad and Greg got together at a conference and the result
of that is that most of the development of the Aerosonde was funded in
Australia as a joint venture between the Australian Bureau of
Meteorology, Insitu, and Sencon Environmental Systems (now ES&S)
Another aspect was that the FAA had no regs in place to allow commercial
UAV's to fly and did not seem too keen on getting involved. (I guess the
old litigation scene again)
The Australian Gov through CASA had no such qualms and they duly wrote
the book on flying UAV's in both uncontrolled and controlled airspace.
Mal Walker of CASA should be thanked there. He broke new ground in
allowing the Aerosonde to fly under permits in some very interesting
places. I think the ultimate of that was an autonomous demonstration
flight of the Aerosonde at Canberra airport (Capital of Australia) in
the circuit while RPT and GA operations continued normally. Flights were
also conducted at Broom, Port Headland, Darwin, Hamilton, various
Pacific islands, Arctic region and Asia.
At the end of a three year development period a company called Aerosonde
Robotic Aircraft was formed and ultimately was purchased by SAAB.
Unfortunately when you get two brilliant people like Tad and Greg
together they do not always agree and separation came about. Tad
continued in his direction at Insutu and Greg ran Aerosonde Robotic
Aircraft. See http://www.aerosonde.com/index.php
for current state of the company.

In relation to the Atlantic crossing that was certainly all Tads idea
and his Insitu team carried it out. Any one that can fly a light
autonomous aircraft those distances in that climate deserve
congratulating such as Insitu and the TAM team.

BG