Posted by Tim Trueman on August 28, 2009 at 6:24pm
Here's a video about the University of Alaska's operation of a Scan Eagle UAV I posted about earlier:http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/08/firefighting-uav/"Earlier this month in Alaska, a 40-pound Insitu Scan Eagle saw duty fighting wildfires after dense haze grounded conventional aircraft. The UAV is operated by the University of Alaska, which according to university officials is the first entity other than NASA and the Department of Defense allowed to fly an unmanned aircraft beyond the line of sight in civil airspace. The Department of Homeland Security also is using UAVs for border surveillance."
Do you honestly think that I'd be allowed to hand over a data file? data paid for and owned by a commercial customer? If I was unscrupulous, then sure, I'd hand it over. However as you are well aware, I can't, so where does that leave things? If you subscribe to the too hard basket, then go ahead, and speculate, however if you believe that only 1 company in the world besides NASA is given a green light to flight blos, then you are as gullable as the people who breathe that report. I know which side of the fence I stand on, which side do you?
you're adding to the "he said she said" by laying claim to work for a company that operates BLOS without providing any evidence yourself. i know, i know, you can't talk about it. then why are you?
Without being able to say I work for xxx and here is the data from flights, Its all a matter of he said she said.
While I don't disagree that mass media is nothing but lies its still hard to judge who is right and who is wrong here without any type of "proof"
I cannot based upon my NDA, and that is not up for discussion. I would rather than discuss why companies lay claim to something that is untrue, which leads to false information and impressions. - isn't that more important?
unfortunatley not the only entity in the world other than nasa to operate in civil (or controlled) airspace beyond line of sight. UAV company I work for, has been doing this for over 4 years. And, I am aware of many other companies who also do it. I wish they would get their research right before they publish wrong facts like that.
I think the video looks like it does because of two things the operator could use some practice setting the level and span on the thermal imager (gain control) and there is water vapor attenuating the ir...oh and they are flying too low...
For all its sleekness, MIT blessing, & insituness, the video quality just looks horrible. Hopefully they're stitching it together to make sense of it. Wonder how far the fire got while they were setting up all those catapults & nets.
Comments
While I don't disagree that mass media is nothing but lies its still hard to judge who is right and who is wrong here without any type of "proof"