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| Aerosonde UAS. Photo: UAS |
[Avionics Today 12-08-2015] Aerosonde, a Melbourne-based strategic business of Textron Systems Unmanned Systems, has delivered a commercial variant of its Aerosonde Small Unmanned Aircraft System (SUAS) to the Taiwanese government as part of its typhoon research program.
The Aerosonde team delivered a complete system to the National Applied Research Laboratories/Taiwan Typhoon and Flood Research Institute, including three aircraft, command-and-control elements, and associated equipment, which is equipped with specialized sensors as part of a comprehensive research effort to model and predict typhoon activity surrounding the island nation. Earlier variants of the Aerosonde system have been used extensively for meteorological research, including hurricane flights off the United States’ Atlantic coast and off western Pacific Ocean by National Taiwan University.
The SUAS offers a radio link that is capable of satellite communications, delivering beyond-line-of-sight operations for more than 18 hours. It has also been demonstrated with a variety of application-specific payloads including electro-optic/infrared, high-definition survey, mapping and meteorology. Aerosonde is the first Australian company to receive an Air Operator’s Certificate from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to fly in commercial airspace.