Background: The Aerosonde moved into operations in 1999 using the Mark 1 aircraft developed by an Australian/US collaboration. Subsequent development by Aerosonde Robotic Aircraft (www.aerosonde.com) has taken the aircraft through Mark 2 to the current Mark 3. Initially developed for meteorological observations, the aircraft has evolved into long-range operations for surveillance, agricultural, biological and land-use purposes. Over 2000 flight hours have been completed to date, the longest being over 35 h, with operations in north America, the Arctic, East Asia, Australia and Europe. On 20-21 Aug 98, Aerosonde became the first UAV to cross the Atlantic, taking off from Newfoundland and landing 26 hrs 45 min later and 2031 miles away in Scotland's Outer Hebrides. The current fleet has 20 aircraft and this is expanding. Customers include the several weather services, NSF, NASA, the Office of Naval Research Australian and US military.

Length, ft	6.2	Wing Span, ft	9.6
Gross Weight, lbs	30.8	Payload Weight, lbs	0 to 11 (some fuel tradeoff)
Fuel Capacity, lbs	0 to 11	Fuel Type	Unleaded Gasoline
Engine Make	AeRA 24 cc Fuel Injected	Power, hp	1.6
Structure	Carbon fiber, kevlar
Guidance	AeRA autopilot	Navigation	Trimble SV-6 GPS
Data Link(s)	UHF/Sat (up/dn)	Data Rate(s)	9.6 kbps

Endurance, hrs	>50	Radius, nm	Unlimited
Max Speed, kts	80	Stall Speed, kts	31 to 41
Altitude, ft	21,000
Takeoff Means	Car roof rack, Catapult
Navigation	Preprogrammed (waypoints)/ autonomous/direct control
Landing Means	Belly

Sensor(s): Operational: Vaisala RSS901 sondes (2), wind sensor, still/video camera, IR heat sensor, surface temperature, icing detector. Under development: surface wind and waves, atmospheric chemistry, laser/UWB rangefinder, synthetic aperture radar, radiation sensors.