The Aerosonde Global Reconnaissance Facility

The Aerosonde is a small, robotic aircraft designed to undertake a wide range of operations in a highly flexible and inexpensive mode. The basic characteristics and details of recent operations can be obtained from our web site at www.aerosonde.com

First conceived in 1992, the aircraft has developed to fully operational status, with the Mark 2 aircraft now in operations and a development program to Mark 4 in progress. The major developments over the past 12 months have been aimed at developing the vision of a global operation based on the Aerosonde platform. This entails a Global Reconnaissance Facility, operating through a Global Command Centre and a distributed set of Launch and Recovery Sites. A major trial conducted by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology in the first half of 2000 has demonstrated the operational capacity of the concept. Aerosondes successfully operated in southeastern Australia for a total of 250 h in a range of weather conditions, whilst under command from the Victorian Regional Forecasting Centre of the Bureau. This global facility is now being implemented, with launch and recovery sites being established in the USA, Canada, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.

To enable optimal deployment of aircraft for user purposes, two additional components are being developed. A Virtual Field Environment will enable users to receive all aircraft data and design flight missions within their own office, removing the field for expensive and inconvenient field travel. Since Aerosondes are also often required to operate in groups, a Smart Aerosonde Cluster concept is being developed, in which a group of aircraft will interact amongst themselves to determine the best method of achieving a defined mission.