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  • That aircraft was a Bruce Tharpe Engineering "Super Hauler." The Engineering department flies a couple of those doing payload development.
  • There was one episode in Discovery Channel... one than chases tornadoes. (Forgot the name.) That used a pretty large scale hi-winger and RPV'd it along the tornado.
  • Aerodonde has be flown into a hurricane and back again with no significant problems. The key is whether or not (no pun intended) the aircraft tries to fly a track over the ground. That would be a wild ride.
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    The Federal Aviation Administration approved the unmanned data-collecting airplanes for flights up to 1,000 feet in remote parts of Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska in the past year, says Brian Argrow, director of the Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles at the University of Colorado. The UAV in this study, named Tempest, is a lightweight propeller-driven airplane with a 10-foot wingspan, he said.

    One UAV will be flown at a time, but the scientists will have backup planes with them in case one is damaged. "We need to sample more storms, and hopefully in 2010, we'll get that opportunity," Burgess says.


    Just in case.......... humm
  • Just more or less adding to the question here...

    Since they are:
    "The National Science Foundation (NSF) foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)..."
    and that means they are both government entities...
    Then once they have either a COA (certificate of authorization) or EAC (experimental airworthiness certificate) set all lined up... and then follow the regulations regarding those... shouldn't they be able to practically fly at will in the intended areas?
    But then the next logical question is this: When conditions develop conducive to formation of a tornado, it isn't going to do so in the time frames needed to inform any of the local airfields appropriately (according to the regs i have been able to read so far) it will be a minute by minute deal...
    I am assuming they will have some special dispensation set up regarding this. It would certainly be good to understand the details...
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