Surveillance aircraft completes maiden voyage

On 5 August, Global Observer Aircraft 1001 took off from Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB) in California and climbed to an altitude of 4,000ft, where it then performed manoeuvres before landing an hour later.

The aircraft was developed under the Global Observer Joint Capability Technology Demonstration programme.

AeroVironment’s chief test pilot, Andy Thurling operated the aircraft remotely from a portable Launch and Recovery Element (LRE), a piece of equipment that handles the take-off and landing functions of a UAV’s flight.

According to AeroVironment, Thurling guided the aircraft through a pre-determined flight path as the first step in a flight-test campaign that will gradually demonstrate increasing flight endurance and operating altitude.

The hybrid-electric aircraft flew for the first time under battery power and will ultimately carry a liquid hydrogen-fuelled propulsion system to power it through high altitude, long endurance joint operational utility assessment planned for later in 2010.

‘In the 20th century, conventional airplanes opened the lower atmosphere to practical use and satellites did the same for space,’ said Tim Conver, AV’s chairman and chief executive officer. ‘I believe that Global Observer soon will establish the stratosphere as a valuable and practical area of operation.’