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Product Overview

Using commercial aircraft can be expensive, using remotely piloted aircraft systems to gather local weather conditions aloft can 

tremendously cost effective, efficient, and safe. The ability to accurately define and forecast such local conditions depends on 

the quality of available upper-air data. Because of this, local weather measurements are required to determine weather 

forcasts. The ARIM320 is a weather-sensing solution for measuring mission-critical data, which is able to deliver that data to 

ground personnel using satellite telemetry.

Accurate wind measurement from an airborne platform poses a challenging problem given the fact that the aircraft is moving 

many times faster than the wind being measured. As a result, the wind signal of interest is only a small portion of the measured 

air-motion data and is dominated by the motion of the aircraft itself. Under these circumstances, precision wind measurement to 

an accuracy better than 0.5 m/s (1 knot) requires acquisition of the true airspeed to better than 0.7 knots accuracy, flow 

direction (sideslip) to better than 0.1 degree accuracy and true heading to better than 0.2 degree accuracy. The ARIM320 

system delivers this level of performance in a small, integrated, light-weight package that is easy to calibrate with the pressure 

boom molded directly into the airframe and the electronics safely sealed within the electronics bay.

The TD100E & M Microclimatology Mission Configuration uses Brican’s high performance composite aircraft platform fitted with 

an electric motor and LiPo batteries for extended duration flight of approximately 4 hours in the air. The TD100 aircraft carries a 

modified version of Aventech’s ARIM320 Digital Air Probe sensor suite. The climatology payload package provides the user 

with the ability to review and react to sampled data in real-time via an online interface (in the form of a Ground Station readout). 

This will allow the Ground Station Operator to interact with the aircraft in-situ and add additional waypoints based on real-time 

data feedback and therefore re-task or extend the scope of the mission or survey area while the aircraft is still in flight.

Payload Description

The ARIM320 is an air data measurement system capable of providing:

- Static Pressure (Ps)

- Total Pressure (Pt)

- Indicated Air Speed (IAS) / Altitude (IA)

- Calibrated Air Speed (CAS) / Altitude (CA)

- True Air Speed (TAS) / Altitude (TA)

- Equivalent Air Speed (EAS) / Altitude (EA)

- Angle of Attack (AOA)

- Angle of Sideslip (AOS)

- Total Air Temperature (TAT)

- Outside Air Temperature (OAT)

- And Impact Pressure

The ARIM320 evaluates the parameters listed above from a base set of 

aerodynamic, meteorological, GPS code and carrier-phase, and inertial 

measurements which include:

- Pitot Pressure

- Static Pressure

- AOA Differential Pressure

- AOS Differential Pressure

- Temperature

- Humidity

- GPS Time

- GPS Position (Latitude, Longitude, and Altitude)

- GPS Velocity

- Three-axis Accelerations (X, Y, Z)

- Three-axis Rates (Roll, Pitch, Yaw)

Combining the GPS carrier-phase information with the acceleration and 

rate information using Aventech’s proprietary Extended Kalman Filter 

(EKF) algorithm subsequently provides:

- Airframe Attitude (Roll, Pitch, Yaw)

- True Heading (TH)

- Course Heading (CH)

- Three-Dimensional Winds. 

Integrated inertially-aided GPS attitude system provides:

- Aircraft Attitude (Roll, Pitch, and Yaw)

- Inertial Velocity

- Wind Speed and Wind Direction

- Rate of Climb (ROC)

- Flight Path Angle (FPA)

The air-data, GPS, inertial sensors and all analog and digital processing 

electronics are all fully integrated into a single miniature Air Data Probe 

enclosure which is mounted within the fuselage of the airframe. The probe 

only requires power in, and provides all acquired air data measurements 

via a digital communications interface.

Brican Flight Systems 

TD100E - Meteorological Survey / Weather Mapping
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TD100E & M series Remote Piloted Aircraft 

Benefits

• Provides real-time measurement of mean winds and 

RMS turbulence metrics 

• Provides temperature, humidity and pressure data 

• Includes output of high-precision aircraft attitude 

data (bank angle, pitch angle and true heading) 

• Is a fully integrated package with all components 

engineered and integrated directly into the TD100 

Series UAV providing a “turn-key” FAA certified 

weather sampling solution

• Full support for aerodynamic calibration to minimize 

the time and effort necessary to analyze flightcalibration data 

• Unrivalled price-performance ratio for airborne 

meteorological observation 

• Easily integrated with other data systems, or 

operates independently using an internal data log 

Applications

• Support for aerial application of pesticides 

• Atmospheric observation for scientific research 

• Airborne observation 

• Pollution transport studies

• Acquisition of environmental parameters to aid in 

the analysis of remote sensing data

Aircraft

 Air Frame

 Wing Span

 Length

 Propulsion

 Motor Spec E

 Motor Spec M

 Power Supply

 Dry Weight

 Max Weight

 Max Speed

 Cruise Speed

 Endurance E

 Endurance M

 Auto Pilot

 Maximum Altitude

 OperatingTemperature 

Composite Carbon Fibre

16' 3" (488.95 cm)

6' 7" (200.25 cm)

4.5 hp Electric motor (995 gram)

90 A, 195 RPM/V

Bio Fuel

8 x 37 V, 4500 mAh LiPo batteries 

34.6 lbs (15.7 kg)

50 lbs (22.7 kg)

120 mph (193 kph)

75 mph (120 kph)

4 hrs 

30 hrs

Spektrum 2.4 GHz DSM2 RC control sys

14,763 feet (4,500 meters)

-40° C to 45° C (-40° F to 113° F)